St. Louis Cardinals David Freese celebrates with his teammates. UPI/Bill Greenblatt

Twice the Cardinals were down to their last strike. Twice the Cardinals rallied to tie the game. Then, in the 11th inning, David Freese capped off perhaps one of the single greatest World Series performances by blasting a solo home run to dead center field to give the Cardinals a 10-9 win and force a seventh game Friday night.

With the Cardinals down 7-5 in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and two strikes, Freese ripped a long fly ball to right field that Nelson Cruz misplayed allowing Albert Pujols and Lance Berkman to score off Texas closer Neftali Feliz, tying the game at 7-7.

David Freese on his triple, HR and being the hometown hero (1:16)

In the tenth, the Rangers didn’t flinch with Josh Hamilton homering off Jason Motte with one on and one out to put Texas back on top 9-7 just that quick.

In the bottom of the tenth, the Cardinals mounted another rally as left handed hitters Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay singled of lefty Darren Oliver. A sac bunt from Kyle Lohse and a ground out by Ryan Theriot scored Descalso. With two outs, pitcher Scott Feldman intentionally walked Albert Pujols to get to Lance Berkman, who was moved into the cleanup spot for this game. Down to his last strike, Berkman singled home Jay from second tying the game again at 9-9.

All of this happened after the Rangers took at 7-4 lead and held that lead going into the eighth inning. Allen Craig gave the Cardinals a little life by hitting a solo homer to make it 7-5. That came off game five winner Derek Holland who pitched two innings of relief. The big question for Texas manager Ron Washington is was that a mistake using what looked to be his hottest pitcher in a relief role as opposed to saving him for game seven?

Tony LaRussa on the comeback and game 7 starter (1:10)

The first half of this game was just absolutely crazy. Between the teams they combined for five errors which included a dropped fly ball in left by Matt Holliday and a dropped pop up by Freese at third base. Each led to runs for the Rangers.

Craig’s home run in the eighth which gave the Cardinals their fifth run was just the team’s fourth hit of the night. The Cards finished with 13 hits and seven walks. A total of 15 pitchers were used by both teams.

Things to look for in game seven. Matt Holliday left the game in the sixth inning when he was picked off third base and jammed his right hand into the bag when diving back. He left the game. Rangers catcher Mike Napoli twisted his ankle when he rolled it over second base beating out a throw and their right fielder Nelson Cruz hobbled into the clubhouse after batting in the top of the 11th.