Jason Motte stood in front of his locker in the quiet Cardinals clubhouse and said the same thing over and over: “I didn’t do my job.”

Three outs from taking a 2-0 World Series lead to Texas, St. Louis instead finds itself tied with the Rangers at a game apiece.

Motte allowed consecutive singles to open the ninth inning, and sacrifice flies by Josh Hamilton and Michael Young lifted the Rangers to a 2-1 victory Thursday night.

“It was almost a great story for us,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. “Turned out to be a greater one for them.”

In a virtual repeat of the opener, pinch-hitter Allen Craig put the Cardinals ahead with a seventh-inning single off Alexi Ogando.

St. Louis starter Jaime Garcia allowed three hits in seven shutout innings before Fernando Salas and Marc Rzepczynski combined for a hitless eighth. But a day after Motte finished off a 3-2 win with a 1-2-3 ninth, Ian Kinsler blooped a leadoff single to left, just beyond the reach of shortstop Rafael Furcal. Kinsler then stole second, narrowly beating Yadier Molina’s throw.

“I mean, my hand just barely got in there. It took everything I had,” Kinsler said. “Yadier made an unbelievable throw, quick, on the money, and I was just able to get my hand in there.”

Elvis Andrus, who saved a run in the fifth with an amazing glove flip from shortstop, singled to center for his first hit in seven at-bats in the Series. Kinsler took a wide turn, then retreated to third, and Andrus advanced when Jon Jay’s throw got past cutoff man Albert Pujols.

“It stinks. It’s one of those things,” Motte said. “I went out there and made a good pitch to Kinsler, and he did a good piece of hitting and got enough on it to get it out of the reach of Furcal. The next one, I threw another cutter, and it just wasn’t a good pitch. It moved, came back, just stayed middle and spun up there.”

More than an hour after the game, the three official scorers decided to charge Pujols with an error.

“I should have made a better throw right there. It was the big part of the game,” Jay said. “It was off-line a little bit.”

After making all the right moves in the opener, La Russa brought in lefty Arthur Rhodes to face Hamilton, who is hitless in 16 consecutive World Series at-bats dating to Game 3 against San Francisco last year. La Russa decided against an intentional walk.

“Load the bases, that’s a really difficult thing to do,” La Russa said. “I don’t think walking him there would have made it easier for us. I think it would have made it tougher.”

Hamilton, the reigning AL MVP, drove home Kinsler with a fly to right.

“It would have been a grounder if I would have kept it down,” Rhodes said.

Lance Lynn relieved, and Young hit a fly to center that scored Andrus with the go-ahead run.

Motte took the loss, and Mike Adams got the win with a scoreless eighth. Neftali Feliz pitched the ninth for the save, walking Molina before striking out Nick Punto and Skip Schumaker. Furcal flied out to end it.

“It’s baseball. That’s the way this game is,” Motte said. “You’re going to have good days, bad days.”

When the Series shifts to Texas on Saturday night, Matt Harrison starts Game 3 for the Rangers against Kyle Lohse. Derek Holland goes for Texas in Game 4 on Sunday and Edwin Jackson for the Cardinals.

While Pujols dropped to 0 for 6 in the Series and Matt Holliday fell to 1 for 6 (.167), David Freese sparked the Cardinals in the seventh when he singled with one out against Colby Lewis. Punto, the No. 8 batter, hit a single off the glove of Young — who played first only 36 times during the regular season.

That knocked out both starters, with Ogando coming in to face Craig for the second straight night.

Craig fouled off a pitch, then lined a single to right-center that sent Freese home and energized a sellout crowd of 47,288 at Busch Stadium.

“Kind of deja vu,” Craig said.

Two innings earlier, Furcal came up with two on and two outs and hit a one-hop smash to the shortstop side of second, but Andrus ranged over to make a diving stop. From his knees on the outfield grass, he flipped the ball with his glove to Kinsler, who just beat a sliding Garcia to second base.

“The play was ridiculous,” Kinsler said. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

— Associated Press —

Nelson Cruz sprinted over to the foul line, desperately trying to run down Allen Craig’s tailing liner. The right fielder came up just short, and so did the Texas Rangers.

Craig’s pinch-hit drive landed an inch or two in front of Cruz’s outstretched glove for a go-ahead single off reliever Alexi Ogando in the sixth inning that carried the St. Louis Cardinals over the Rangers 3-2 Wednesday in a chilly World Series opener.

On a night when all the runs were driven in with opposite-field hits to right, Lance Berkman put St. Louis ahead with a two-run single in the fourth against C.J. Wilson.

Rangers catcher Mike Napoli watched in dejection as Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday scored, but a few minutes later celebrated in the top of the fifth when he tied it 2-all with a two-run homer off Chris Carpenter.

While the Rangers’ bullpen couldn’t hold on, five St. Louis relievers combined for three innings of one-hit relief. Not that Texas didn’t have its chances — the Rangers were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

Colby Lewis starts for the Rangers on Thursday night, trying to send the Series back to Texas tied at a game apiece.

Game 1 has been an indicator of success in recent decades: The winner has captured seven of the last eight titles, 12 of the last 14 and 19 of the last 23. In addition, the team hosting Game 1 has won 20 of the last 25 World Series.

A year after making their first World Series appearance, a five-game loss to the San Francisco Giants that opened with an 11-7 loss, the Rangers were back.

Taking over as ace after Cliff Lee left to sign with Philadelphia, Wilson dropped to 0-3 with a 7.17 ERA in four postseason starts this year, allowing three runs and four hits in 5 2/3 innings with a career-high six walks — two of them intentional.

He prepared for the start by getting in a tank of liquid nitrogen at 295 degrees below zero — the treatment is said to aid recovery — but on a blustery, 49-degree night his walks and a key wild pitch got him into some hot spots.

He fell behind after bouncing a pitch in the fourth that hit three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols on the left foot. That started a streak of three bad pitches in a four-pitch span.

Wilson tried to go inside on Matt Holliday but left the next one over the plate, and Holliday hit an opposite-field double into the right-field corner as Pujols took third.

Then, with the count 1-0 to Berkman, Wilson tried to go inside again but allowed the ball to drift over the plate. Berkman went the other way and chopped the ball over first base and into right field as the Cardinals took a 2-0 lead. Wilson shook his head back and fourth as he walked back to the mound.

The lead was short-lived.

Adrian Beltre singled leading off the fifth and, one out later, Napoli turned on a high pitch and sent it about 10 rows deep into the right-field seats for his second home run of the postseason. A fired-up Carpenter had escaped a two-on, none-out jam in the second inning when Napoli hit into an inning-ending double play.

Pujols had Cardinals fans cheering in the top of the sixth when he slid to stop Michael Young’s grounder behind first and threw to Carpenter for the out, stranding Ian Kinsler at third.

Then in the bottom half, NLCS MVP David Freese hit an opposite-field double to right with one out and went to third on a wild pitch. Wilson struck out Yadier Molina, then pitched carefully to Nick Punto and walked him on four pitches.

Ogando relieved, and with many of the red-clad Cardinals fans standing and waving white towels, Craig sliced a 1-2 pitch down the right field line. Cruz, the ALCS MVP, came oh-so-close to making the sliding catch, but the ball bounced just in front of his glove as Freese scored. Texas was lucky that the ball struck Cruz on a foot; otherwise, it could have rolled to the fence.

Carpenter became the first St. Louis starter to reach the sixth inning since the division series. He got the win, allowing two runs and five hits in six innings with four strikeouts and one walk. Fernando Salas, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Arthur Rhodes and Jason Motte followed, with Motte getting three outs for his fifth postseason save.

With one out in the ninth, Beltre was called out on a grounder to third on a ball that appeared to bounce off his foot and could have been ruled foul. The call didn’t go the Rangers’ way.

It was that kind of night.

— Associated Press —