ST. LOUIS, Missouri - The Texas Rangers rallied in the ninth inning to beat St. Louis 2-1 and even the World Series at 1-1 behind a pair of sacrifice flies and another solid performance from their bullpen.

Michael Young combined with Josh Hamilton to hit back-to-back sacrifice flies in the top of the ninth on Thursday for the Rangers, who rebounded from a Game 1 loss to the Cardinals the night before.

Starting pitcher Colby Lewis held off the Cardinals explosive offence for 62/3 innings and shortstop Elvis Andrus turned a couple of clutch defensive plays early in the game for Texas, which hasn't lost consecutive contests since late August. But they didn't get their bats going until late in Game 2 in front of a crowd of 46,606 at Busch Stadium.

"I think you have to give credit to the pitching out there tonight," said Texas manager Ron Washington. "You just have to keep grinding and good things started to happen for us."

The best-of-seven series now shifts to Dallas, Texas, for the next three games with Game 3 set for Saturday.

Thursday's contest started as a duel between Cardinals starting pitcher Jaime Garcia and the Rangers' Lewis before St. Louis pinch hitter Allen Craig broke open the scoreless game by driving in another go-ahead run.

"We had a lot of good at-bats," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa. "They showed in the ninth inning they can play the game correctly to make two guys come around and score."

For the second night in a row, Craig sliced an Alexi Ogando pitch to right field, his RBI single in the bottom of the seventh giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead.

But the Rangers didn't give up, especially Young, who turned 35 on Wednesday, and a hobbled Hamilton, who is playing with an injured groin. Young delivered the eventual winning run with his sacrifice to center field that scored Andrus.

Hamilton had belted a sacrifice fly moments earlier to right field that plated leadoff batter Ian Kinsler to knot the score at 1-1.

Hamilton said earlier that his strained groin is so troublesome that if it wasn't the World Series, he probably wouldn't be playing.

"I am trying not to do too much," Hamilton said. "Just reacting instead of trying to make it happen. That's a good thing sometimes."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 10/22/2011 page15)