MLB: St. Louis 10, Texas 9 (11 innings)

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- David Freese ended a series of rallies with an 11th-inning homer Thursday to give St. Louis a 10-9 win over Texas and force a seventh game in the World Series.

The Cardinals were down to what could have been their final strike of the season in both the ninth and 10th innings, but came from two runs behind in both frames to keep the game alive.

Freese then led off the 11th with a home run to center off Mark Lowe, the eighth Texas pitcher of the game.

The Rangers were thus denied their first World Series title in franchise history and now must face the pressure of a deciding game. It will be the first World Series Game 7 in nine years. St. Louis will be trying for its 11th title and its first since 2006.

Game 6 was not baseball in its purist form, with four of the runs being unearned -- two for each team -- due to five errors. The drama, however, made it one of the more riveting World Series games in recent memory.

Texas took a 7-4 lead in the seventh inning, thanks in part to back-to-back homers from Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz, and still led 7-5 going into the bottom of the ninth.

The Cardinals put runners on first and second with one away against Texas closer Neftali Feliz, who then brought the Rangers within one out of the championship by fanning Allen Craig.

Freese was next and he faced a 1-2 pitch before driving a triple to right that tied the game. Yadier Molina was out on a fly ball to end the inning and send the game to the 10th.

Texas again jumped in front in that inning when Josh Hamilton hit a two-run homer.

St. Louis opened its half of the 10th inning with singles from Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay off Darren Oliver and the runners were advanced on Kyle Lohse's sacrifice.

Scott Feldman came on to relieve Oliver and got Ryan Theriot on a grounder to third that scored Descalso. Albert Pujols was then intentionally walked, but the Rangers chose to face Lance Berkman with a base open and he again tied the game with a single to center that brought home Jay.

Scott Carpenter will pitch the deciding game for the Cardinals and Matt Harrison will throw for the Rangers.