Are You Kidding Me?!?!

Wow! Unbelievable! "I don't believe what I just saw!"

(Photo courtesy of AP)

They were dead. There were two outs. The third out of ninth inning was all but official. But then something funny happened. Matt Holliday got crossed up. The Dodgers got life. And, well, we all saw what happened after that.

James Loney's liner was supposed to be the last out that would send the series back to St. Louis even at 1-1, but Holliday appeared to have lost the ball in the lights and it him right above the cajones, ricocheted off him and rolled about 15 feet away in front of him. Loney wound up at second.

The key at bat though, in that inning, was Casey Blake. Blake was in a 1-2 hole and worked out a huge walk after fouling off several pitches following the Holliday error. Ronnie Belliard then came up and took Ryan Franklin's first pitch into center field as Juan Pierre, running for Loney, scored the equalizer from second. Martin then drew a four-pitch walk from Franklin, and the stage was set for Mark Loretta.

Loretta was 0 for 15 in his career against Franklin. But tonight, that didn't matter. He blooped Franklin's second pitch into shallow center over the head of Cards shortstop Brendan Ryan.

And to think this all happened after Adam Wainwright had pretty much shut the Dodgers down offensively for eight innings. Clayton Kershaw was stellar, too. As was the Dodger pen, again.

Holliday and Andre Ethier traded off solo home runs early in the game, and the game remained tied until rookie Colby Rasmus doubled off Kershaw in the seventh inning to score Mark DeRosa from first base. But Rasmus got greedy and tried to stretch it into a triple and the relay was cut off by Loney near the mound, and Rasmus was hung out to dry at third like a dead duck. Cards manager Tony LaRussa was visibly frustrated by Rasmus's over-aggressiveness.

And so now, the series goes back to St. Louis with the Blue up 2-0. The Cards have history against them, as no N.L. team has ever come back from an 0-2 deficit in a best-of-five series.

I'm still in shock!