St. Louis ? Having forced the World Series to a Game 7 for the first time in nine years, St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa must decide whether to send ace Chris Carpenter to the mound on short rest tonight or start Kyle Lohse or Edwin Jackson.

“We are not going beyond this game. This is too important,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said before Thursday night’s thrilling 10-9 win. “I hope to have the problem.”

Now he does, thanks to a pair of improbable rallies in Game 6 and David Freese’s decisive homer in the 11th inning that capped one of the most exciting finishes in baseball history.

Twice down to their final strike, the Cardinals tied it each time. Once in the ninth inning on Freese’s two-run triple off Neftali Feliz, then again in the 10th on Lance Berkman’s RBI single off Scott Feldman.

Afterward, La Russa still would not commit to a Game 7 starter.

Texas manager Ron Washington made his decision days ago, announcing he would stay in rotation and start Matt Harrison, the Game 3 loser.

The eight-year absence of baseball’s ultimate game is the longest since the World Series began in 1903. The Cardinals hold the record for most World Series Game 7s, going 7-3.

When a seventh game was last played in 2002, John Lackey pitched five innings of one-hit ball to lead the Anaheim Angels over the San Francisco Giants 4-1, completing a comeback from a 3-2 Series deficit. Lackey joined Babe Adams of the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates as the only rookie starters to win a seventh game, and the Angels became the eighth straight home team to triumph in Game 7 since the victory by Pittsburgh’s “We Are Family” team at Baltimore in 1979.

In 2001, Randy Johnson came out of the bullpen on no days’ rest and the Diamondbacks rallied for two runs in the ninth inning against Mariano Rivera, beating the Yankees 3-2 on Luis Gonzalez’s broken-bat single.

“When you’re a little kid, you think about the seventh game of the World Series,” Gonzalez said. “It didn’t matter how the hit came.”

While the Cardinals are seeking their 11th title, the Rangers are going for the first in the 51-year history of the franchise which began as the expansion Washington Senators in 1961. The team moved to Texas for the 1972 season.

“We’ve been backed into a corner for the last two months,” the Cardinals’ Skip Schumaker said, “so we know what it feels like.”

Carpenter won the opener, then allowed two runs in seven innings in Game 5 Monday, giving up solo homers to Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre. He didn’t get a decision in the Cardinals 4-2 loss.

He would be just the second pitcher since 1991 to make three Series starts, following Arizona’s Curt Schilling a decade ago. But it would be just his second career start on three days’ rest for the 36-year-old, who has come back from several arm injuries. After pitching a two-hit shutout at Houston on the last night of the regular season to help clinch the NL wild card, Carpenter gave up four runs over three innings in Game 2 of the division series at Philadelphia. He didn’t get a decision as the Cardinals rallied to win 5-4.

During the last two decades, starters on short rest are 9-8 with a 2.78 ERA in the World Series, with their teams going 12-15.

Lohse, who would be pitching on five days’ rest, was pulled after three innings in Game 3, and the Cardinals went on to win 16-7 against Harrison, who was let down by his defense and allowed five runs — two unearned — in 32/3 innings. Jackson struggled with his control and walked seven in 5 1-3 innings as St. Louis lost 4-0 in Game 4.

Hall of Famer Bob Gibson started three Game 7s for the Cardinals, winning in 1964 and 1967 and losing in 1968.

In 1926, Babe Ruth was thrown out trying to steal second base for the final out as the Cardinals beat the Yankees 3-2. And in 1946, the score was tied at 3 in the eighth when the Cardinals’ Enos Slaughter scored from first on Harry Walker’s hit as Red Sox shortstop Johnny Pesky hesitated with his relay after receiving the throw from outfielder Leon Culberson.