David Freese homered to deep center field in the bottom of the 11th inning and the St. Louis Cardinals forced a seventh and deciding game in the World Series with a dramatic 10-9 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers on Thursday.

Freese’s game-winning blast off Mark Lowe (0-1) capped a frantic back-and-forth game and tied the series 3-3. Game 7 will be Friday night in St. Louis.

Texas was one strike away from the winning the title in both the ninth and 10th innings but was unable to close the deal.

In the ninth inning, Freese hit a two-out, two-run triple off the right-field wall against closer Neftali Feliz to force extra innings.

Josh Hamilton smashed a two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning – his first homer of the postseason – to give Texas a 9-7 lead. But St. Louis struck twice in the bottom of the inning, scoring the first run on Ryan Theriot’s infield out before tying the score on Lance Berkman’s two-out single off Scott Feldman.

Jake Westbrook (1-0) pitched a scoreless 11th for the Cardinals.

Texas took a 7-4 lead in the seventh when Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back-to-back homers and Ian Kinsler delivered a run-scoring single. Cruz’s blast allowed him to join San Francisco’s Barry Bonds (2002) and Houston’s Carlos Beltran (2004) as the only players to hit eight homers in a single postseason.

Allen Craig, who replaced an injured Matt Holliday, homered in the eighth to get the Cardinals back within two runs.

Berkman hit a two-run homer in the opening inning for the Cardinals. The Rangers then took a 3-2 in the fourth when Mike Napoli notched his 10th RBI of the series with a single just inside the right-field line.