It looks like that short leash did, in fact, get even shorter going into an elimination game in the 2011 World Series: The St. Louis Cardinals have already removed Game 6's starter, Jaime Garcia, in favor of all-purpose stopper and ex-closer Fernando Salas. The move comes just after Albert Pujols proved they weren't in Busch Stadium anymore, nearly homering on a ball that somehow failed to escape the warning track, but it didn't work out—after Matt Holliday failed to corral a routine pop-up, Mike Napoli doubled to make it 3-2 Rangers.
↵Garcia got two double-play balls in three innings but struggled with command of his breaking pitches—while his third inning was his best yet, it's clear Tony La Russa wasn't about to pull him an inning too late.
↵Unfortunately, the problems continued for the Cardinals, who committed two ugly errors in the fourth inning to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead. The ugliest one was Matt Holliday's failure to catch a routine fly ball, immortalized here in animated gif form:
↵
Holliday audibly called himself off, but Furcal seemed to lose the ball himself, leaving it to bounce of Holliday's glove. A few plays later Salas, going after the lead runner on a bunt attempt, threw the ball into center field to leave runners on first and second with just one out.