Bullpens getting postseason ink

ST. LOUIS - The bullpen phone has become an event this postseason. Third inning, fifth inning, seventh or eighth, the ring produces the anticipation and suspense of a bases-loaded 3-2 pitch.

"When that phone ring," Cardinals reliever Octavio Dotel said before last night's 2-1 Texas victory in Game 2 of the World Series, "we all go like that!"

He twisted his head quickly to the side. When the first pitch of Game 2 was thrown last night, five Cardinals relievers already had taken a seat on the bullpen bench beyond the rightfield wall. Some, like Dotel, had the luxury of a few more innings of clubhouse warmth, but by the time the fourth inning rolled around, he and a few others were out there as well.

While Texas started with slightly fewer, the Rangers have their own postseason bullpen success story, reversing a midseason weakness into a strength just as St. Louis has. Last night, that strength kept a 1-0 game close, quelled an eighth-inning Cardinals threat that might have rendered the Rangers' ninth-inning, series-tying rally meaningless.

But while roles evolved and were ultimately cast in the Rangers' process, the Cardinals' September run and postseason has been a mix-and-match fest engineered by their 67-year-old manager that even the principals have abandoned hope of figuring out. Tony La Russa is using his pitching staff the way a novice mason bonds stone - large chunks, small chunks, cross your fingers and hope for the best.

It worked in Game 1, when five relievers combined to keep Texas scoreless over the game's last three innings. It worked until the ninth inning of Game 2 last night, undone by a pair of singles, one well hit, one not, a missed cutoff, and a couple of deep-enough fly balls.

"It wasn't a series-saving rally," said Texas second baseman Ian Kinsler, whose leadoff bloop started it. "But it was huge."

"Those of you who have bad hearts," warned Texas manager Ron Washington, "watch yourself."

In a postseason already gushing with ironies, the Rangers did their damage on Cardinals closer Jason Motte, the one St. Louis reliever whose head doesn't swivel when the phone rings, the only one with a defined role. For the others? The bullpen phone has become their roulette wheel.

"We don't know what Tony will do," said Arthur Rhodes, who surrendered the tying sacrifice fly. "So everybody who is out there is ready to go. From the first inning on . . . "

A lot is being made of La Russa's managing this postseason, which is funny, given its inauspicious start. The man who is now being compared to chess masters and chemists left Rhodes in the bullpen and allowed Kyle Lohse to pitch to Ryan Howard in Game 1 of the NLDS, watching an early, 3-0 lead evaporate with the blunder.

You know what else is funny? Tony is managing as much with his gut this postseason as he is with any charts or tendencies. Game 1 was won Tuesday when he pinch-hit for ace Chris Carpenter with two outs and a runner on third in the sixth inning, the game tied at 2. He then allowed righthanded pinch-hitter Allen Craig to hit even after Washington replaced lefty starter C.J. Wilson with hard-throwing righthander Alexi Ogando.

Craig delivered a two-strike opposite-field single on a 98-mph fastball. He also delivered a pinch-hit single against the same pitcher to break a scoreless tie in the seventh last night.

"I wasn't with him in '06," Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire said, "but he's running a hot hand right now."

The nice thing is La Russa's calling it the same thing. Not genius. Not smarter-than-the-other-guy, either. Whether it's age, some health issues over the last few years, or just a widespread misperception, he has handled all the heaping praise with a humility that appears genuine.

"You know, I've seen enough in sports," he said last night when asked his reaction to the praise he has received. "I'm just not affected by it, because the same compliment can be a criticism the next day. And mostly it comes down to you make a move. If it works, 'Hey, what a good move.' If it doesn't work, 'What was he thinking? He should have done something else.' "

Still, give the man who has managed himself into the Hall of Fame some credit. This team is the sum of its parts in a way no other La Russa-managed team has been. In the postseason alone, he has started three second basemen. Rafael Furcal, riding the pine in Los Angeles before a midseason trade, is his leadoff hitter.

His bullpen, which also is filled with other team's throwaways - guys like Rhodes, who started the season with Texas, and Dotel - has been used so efficiently that it has morphed from a seasonlong anchor into a late-season propeller. When Craig gave the Cardinals that 1-0 lead in the seventh inning last night, this series was in danger of being not much of one.

But even a hot hand can get beat when the cards don't deliver as they have been. A missed cutoff, a closer who had been perfect in the postseason up to last night failing to hold on to a lead. If La Russa has learned anything on his way to the Hall of Fame, it is that fortune is fickle.

"It was almost a great story for us," La Russa said. "Turned out to be a great one for them."