Wild night for Jackson as Cardinals lose 4-0

ARLINGTON, Texas — For Edwin Jackson, the mound in Texas really was the wild, wild West.

Jackson walked seven — the most in a World Series game in 14 years — and Mike Napoli followed the last two free passes with a three-run homer on reliever Mitchell Boggs' first pitch to give the Rangers and Derek Holland a 4-0 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday night.

"It's just a matter of time before they catch up with you," Jackson said.

Instead of sending Chris Carpenter to the mound against C.J. Wilson on Monday night with a chance to clinch their 11th title, the Cardinals find themselves in the first World Series since 2003 that's tied at two games apiece. That ensures a return to Busch Stadium for Game 6 on Wednesday.

"If you want to choose somebody from the St. Louis Cardinals to pitch that game, it's Chris," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "We love playing behind him because we know he's going to compete as hard as he can. He's got a lot to compete with."

A night after piling up 16 runs and 15 hits, the Cardinals had two hits — their fewest in the Series since Boston's Jim Lonborg one-hit them in Game 2 in 1967. Holland pitched 8 1-3 innings and Neftali Feliz finished the 19th Series two-hitter, sending the Cardinals to the biggest Series one-game drop in runs since the 1936 Yankees beat the Giants 18-4 in Game 2 at the Polo Grounds, then won 2-1 at Yankee Stadium the next day.

"It was just a great performance," said Lance Berkman, who singled and doubled for both St. Louis hits. "That's why they say momentum is only as good as the next day's starting pitcher."

A night after tying World Series records with three home runs, five hits and six RBIs, Albert Pujols was 0 for 4 — batting with no one on base his first three times up, then flying out against Feliz with two on for the second out in the ninth.

"I thought he put a nice stroke on the ball with Feliz. He hits that ball in the gap, we might have some fun," La Russa said. "They worked us over. Nobody centered the ball except Lance."

Berkman went 2 for 3 and improved to 7 for 15 (.467) in this World Series and 12 for 28 (.429) overall in Series play, including his appearance for Houston in 2005.

Jackson has had a wild streak throughout his career. He walked eight in his third major league start, at San Francisco in 2003. He then matched that on June 25 last year, when he finished one shy of the record for walks in a no-hitter as he pitched Arizona over Tampa Bay 1-0.

Hits weren't much of a problem. Jackson allowed three in 5 1-3 innings — including none after the second. He went to three-ball counts on four of his first 10 batters with the help of some long outs — four flyouts at or just in front of the warning track. He threw just 59 of 109 pitches for strikes.

"I thought he pitched really well," La Russa said. "He missed a few times, walked a couple guys, but he kept making pitches. Overall I give him a huge plus for keeping us in the game."

The seven walks were three shy of the Series record, set by the New York Yankees' Bill Bevens in Game 4 in 1947 against the Brooklyn Dodgers. No one had walked seven in the Series since Florida's Livan Hernandez had eight in Game 5 in 1997 against Cleveland.

Jackson said he felt squeezed by plate umpire Ron Kulpa.

"When you're all over the place, you can't always expect to get close pitches," Jackson said.

Berkman also said the strike zone helped Holland at times.

"Especially early, he got some borderline pitches, though. If they go the other way, it might make a difference," Berkman said. "But you don't want to take anything away from the job that he did. Just a great pitching performance."

Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre made a leaping catch on Rafael Furcal's liner to start the game. It turned out to be that kind of night for the Cardinals.

Texas, which has not lost consecutive games since Aug. 23-25 against Boston, was ahead after 10 pitches from Jackson. That ended the Cardinals' streak of scoring first in 10 straight postseason games, one short of the record set by Detroit from 1972-84.

Elvis Andrus singled sharply to left with one out and Josh Hamilton, just 1 for 12 (.083) coming in, doubled down the right field line.

Mitch Moreland, inserted at first base after Napoli's struggles on Saturday, wound up helping to save a run in the second. Berkman doubled to the right-center gap with one out and, after David Freese struck out, Yadier Molina hit a grounder off the front of the mound. Second baseman Ian Kinsler ranged to the shortstop side of the bag, gloved the ball and made an off-balance throw to first, where Moreland scooped it.

With his pitch count climbing, Jackson walked Nelson Cruz and David Murphy with one out in the sixth. Napoli greeted Boggs by sending a 95 mph fastball just inside the left-field foul pole, about 10 rows deep.

"I think he was ready to hit. I was aggressive, trying to go right at him, and one ran in on him," Boggs said. "I left it up and he was able to get out in front of it."

In their first-row seats, former President George W. Bush and Rangers CEO Nolan Ryan exchanged a high-five. On the mound, Boggs grimaced.

"Now it's a best out of three. See who can win two games," Pujols said. "At the end, that's who is going to be raising the trophy. It's not going to be easy."