YANK CALL: Cardinals manager Tony La Russa takes the ball from Marc Rzepczynski, who let the Rangers take the lead in the eighth inning of their 4-2 win after a bullpen mixup. (Reuters)
ARLINGTON, Texas — If Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is telling the truth, and the Rangers wind up winning the World Series, they should present last night’s sold-out crowd at Rangers Ballpark a full share.
Now, the question is this: Was La Russa being honest when he blamed the crowd for jamming the phone line from the dugout to the bullpen in the eighth inning of last night’s scintillating Game 5?
The sight of lefty reliever Marc Rzepczynski facing the right-handed hitting Mike Napoli with the bases loaded and one out in a tie game set off alarms everywhere because where was right-handed closer Jason Motte?
And when Napoli stroked a two-run double that carried the Rangers to a 4-2 win in front of 51,459 fans, La Russa immediately dropped onto the hot seat with his club trailing the best-of-7 Series, 3-2, heading home.
Game 6 at Busch Stadium is slated for tomorrow night — if the weather cooperates.
According to La Russa, bullpen coach Derek Lilliquist could not hear his manager because the crowd was too loud.
“What happened was that twice the bullpen didn’t hear Motte’s name,” said La Russa, who wanted Motte to face Ian Kinsler. “They heard Rzepczynski and didn’t get Motte. I looked up there and Motte wasn’t going. So I called back for Motte and they got [Lance] Lynn up. They didn’t hear the second time.”
According to Lilliquistm, he only heard the phone ring once and his impression was that La Russa wanted Motte only for Napoli, but Motte wasn’t ready.
Lynn threw 47 pitches Saturday, and La Russa had said in a press conference Sunday that Lynn was on ice until Game 6 tomorrow night.
That’s why he ordered the right-hander to intentionally walk Ian Kinsler to load the bases in the eighth. Then La Russa summoned Motte, who fanned Elvis Andrus to end one of the most bizarre innings in World Series history.
But if the media knew Lynn was not available, why didn’t Lilliquist call a timeout to make sure he had it right? After all, it was Game 5 of the World Series!
The phone snafu was one of several problems La Russa’s club encountered.
Rzepczynski muffed David Murphy’s grounder back to the mound that should have been turned into an inning-ending ended double play in front of Napoli. Instead Murphy reached and the bases were loaded for Napoli.
In the seventh, with the score tied, 2-2, Allen Craig attempted to steal second with Albert Pujols at the plate and was thrown out.
In the ninth, Allen was running on a 3-2 pitch with no outs on La Russa’s orders, and was thrown out at second after Pujols fanned against Neftali Feliz.
“I was more frustrated with the double-play ball that went off the glove and the fact that we had numerous chances to add runs,” said La Russa, whose hitters went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded a dozen runners.
The Cardinals’ 2-0 lead vanished when Mitch Moreland homered off ace Chris Carpenter in the third and Adrian Beltre repeated the act in the sixth. That brought the game to the decisive eighth.
Octavio Dotel gave up a double to Michael Young, fanned Beltre and intentionally walked Nelson Cruz. Cue Rzepczynski for the left-handed Murphy and let the conspiracy theories spin.
Maybe La Russa was telling the truth. Maybe La Russa was covering for Lilliquist. Maybe La Russa played a hunch that went terribly wrong.
In the end, the Rangers danced out of Texas and headed for Missouri needing one win in two games for the franchise’s first ever World Series title.
george.king@nypost.com