A sleepless David Freese treasures moment

Reporting from St. Louis -- David Freese admits he didn’t get much sleep before Friday’s World Series finale.

“About 45 minutes,” he said with a weary smile.

And who could blame him? The hometown kid had just won Game 6 of the World Series for his St. Louis Cardinals with a walk-off homer. But there was more work to do.

So after helping win Game 7 with a two-run first-inning double, Freese admitted it may be a while longer before he gets any more rest.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to soak this all in,” said Freese, who batted .348, with seven runs batted in, and was voted the World Series’ most valuable player. “I’ve tried to soak in this whole postseason as much as I can because you never know if it’s your last attempt at a title.

“It’s going to take me a little bit to realize what we’ve accomplished. Just to win it is an incredible feeling.”

Freese, the sixth player to win MVP awards in both a league championship series and World Series in the same season, batted .397 in 18 postseason games with 14 extra-base hits, 21 runs batted in and a record 52 total bases. He also tied a postseason record with 25 hits.

No regrets

Texas Manager Ron Washington made a number of controversial moves in the World Series, ordering nine intentional walks, making 28 calls to his weary bullpen and having Ian Kinsler thrown out three times — in four tries — trying to steal.

But he’s not second-guessing any of it.

“I did what I thought was best for us,” he said. “A lot of people have opinions about things. But I know my team.”

The painful Game 6 loss will stick with him, however. The Rangers were one strike away from winning the World Series twice before losing in 11 innings, setting up Friday’s Game 7.

“Sometimes when opportunity is in your presence, you certainly can’t let it get away because sometimes it takes a while before it comes back,” he said. “You know, if there’s one thing that happened in this World Series that I’ll look back on is being so close, just having one pitch to be made and one out to be gotten, and it could have been a different story.

“But when you’re a champion, you keep fighting, and St. Louis fought, came back, got us yesterday, and they beat us tonight.”

We can work it out

Albert Pujols became a free agent when the game ended and it figures to cost the Cardinals a lot to bring him back. Although he wasn’t in a mood to discuss any of that Friday, he made it clear where his heart is.

“Right now it’s just enjoying the moment,” he said. “Sitting at first base with three outs left and just thinking about all the things that we went through this year as a group, just how special this group of guys that we have are it’s just amazing.”

Tony La Russa, the only big league manager Pujols has ever played for, left little doubt how he felt. The Cardinals and Pujols both choose not to talk contract during the season but now, La Russa said, the season is over.

“Now it’s time to start talking about it,” La Russa said. “They’re going to try to make it work, and we’ll see if it can work or not.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com