Game 3 Loss Could Haunt the Red Sox for a Long Time Elsa/Getty Images Boston Manager John Farrell needed an explanation from umpire Dana DeMuth on the last play of the game. Then Farrell had some explaining to do of his own about decisions he had made earlier. LOUIS - The last time the Boston Red Sox came here in October, there was simply no stopping them. They had just made eight errors in two games at Fenway Park, yet won them both. They captured the title at the old Busch Stadium, then won another soon after, confirming a bold new identity. In Game 3 of this World Series on Saturday, the Red Sox revived some of the uncomfortable moments of their past. Fielding misplays and managerial mistakes once haunted the franchise, and the championships of 2004 and 2007 have not immunized the modern Red Sox from repeating the sins of their ancestors. Credit the Red Sox for coming back twice on Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals. But the 5-4 loss ensures that if the Red Sox win this World Series, they will not do it here again. And if they lose, this game will linger until the moment they win their next championship. "It blows your mind to lose a game like that," said third baseman Will Middlebrooks, whose interference error allowed Allen Craig to score the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. You literally can't do anything different there. By there, Middlebrooks meant the dirt around third base, where he fell in a failed effort to catch a wild throw from the catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Middlebrooks had nowhere to go, he said, no chance to get out of Craig's way. But once the ball skipped away from Middlebrooks, the baseline belonged to Craig. When Craig tripped over Middlebrooks in his effort to run home, the third base umpire, Jim Joyce, had to call him for obstruction. Middlebrooks needed to clear a path for him, even if that was not possible. "Obstruction is the act of a fielder obstructing the runner when not in the act of fielding the ball," said the crew chief, John Hirschbeck. There does not have to be intent. The play had begun with one out and the infield in. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia made a dazzling stop on a grounder by Jon Jay, then fired to Saltalamacchia, who tagged Yadier Molina. But Craig's decision to break for third baited Saltalamacchia into a throw. "I wasn't expecting him to go, but at the same time you're taught to make the tag and look up," Saltalamacchia said. I made the tag, looked up and I saw he wasn't even halfway there. He's not been running great, so I thought I was able to get him. Craig missed more than a month with a foot injury before the World Series, and does not move well. Saltalamacchia could have held the ball and gone after the light-hitting shortstop, Pete Kozma, who was due up next. But, incredibly, for the second game in a row, another off-line throw to third brought in the go-ahead run. In the seventh inning of Game 2, Saltalamacchia had failed to corral Jonny Gomes's throw from left field on the game-tying sacrifice fly. Pitcher Craig Breslow, who was backing up the play, unleashed a wild throw to third, scoring Jay to break a 2-2 tie. Saltalamacchia essentially repeated Breslow's mistake. "It's a bang-bang play," Manager John Farrell said, when asked if his catcher was right to throw the ball. As it turns out, we have forced a couple of throws to third base than have proven costly. Tonight was a costly throw. Farrell was diplomatic then, but more direct in addressing his own failure. He had managed aggressively early in the game, pulling starter Jake Peavy for a pinch-hitter after four innings and deploying two right-handed bats, Middlebrooks and Gomes, with nobody on base in a tie game in the seventh. But Farrell turned conservative in the ninth, when he let reliever Brandon Workman hit for himself against Trevor Rosenthal. "In hindsight, having Workman hit against Rosenthal is a mismatch," Farrell sad. I recognize it. But we needed more than one inning out of Workman. Workman, who had never come to bat in his three-year professional career, struck out, leaving Mike Napoli on the bench. Napoli hit 23 homers in the regular season and crushed two more off fastballs in Detroit in the American League Championship Series. He might have put the Red Sox ahead with one swing off the hard-throwing Rosenthal, but Farrell never gave him the chance.