ST. LOUIS — Even before it was over, a few minutes past 11 p.m. in the heart of the Midwest, it had the makings of a classic.

And then, the ending cinched it.

The Red Sox lost, 5-4, to the Cardinals here last night in a way that no World Series game has ever ended, a frantic final play that culminated in an obstruction call on third baseman Will Middlebrooks, the awarding of home plate to runner Allen Craig and an ardent protest of a ruling that the umpires got right the first time, even if the Sox didn’t want to believe it.

“It’s an absolute crying shame that a call like this is going to decide a World Series game,” emotional pitcher Jake Peavy said. “It’s a joke. There’s no other way to say it. It’s a joke.”

Added manager John Farrell, “That’s a tough pill to swallow. Tough way to have a game end, particularly of this significance.”

In the bottom of the ninth, with the winning run on third base, one out and the infield drawn in, Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia dove to knock down Jon Jay’s chopper, then made an off-balance throw to the plate to cut down Yadier Molina. Two outs. But catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia threw the ball away in an attempt to get Craig advancing to third base.

By then, Craig was tangled up with Middlebrooks in a mess of arms and legs, and as he tried to get up and run to the plate, third base umpire Jim Joyce invoked Rule 2.00 and ruled that his path was obstructed. So, even though the Red Sox wound up throwing Craig out at the plate, it didn’t matter.

And that’s how the Cardinals seized a 2-1 lead in the third game of the 109th World Series.

Unbelievable? Try unprecedented. Before this, a World Series game had never ended on an obstruction call.

“I dive for the ball there. There's really nowhere for me to go," Middlebrooks said. "I go to get up. He's on top of me. There's really nowhere for me to go there."

That was immaterial, Joyce explained.

“Really, that doesn’t play into that play,” Joyce said. “With the defensive player on the ground, without intent or intent, it’s still obstruction. You’d probably have to ask Middlebrooks if he could have done anything. But that’s not in our determination.”

Indeed, the rulebook reads as follows: "It is entirely up to the judgment of the umpire as to whether a fielder is in the act of fielding a ball. After a fielder has made an attempt to field a ball and missed, he can no longer be in the 'act of fielding' the ball."

It marked the second straight game lost by the Red Sox on an errant throw to third base. In Game 2, lefty reliever Craig Breslow airmailed a throw to third, allowing a run to score in the seventh inning of a 4-2 loss. This time, Saltalamacchia thought he could get Craig, slowed by a foot injury that caused him to miss the final month of the regular season and the Cardinals' first two postseason series.

"I thought I was able to get him," Saltalamacchia said. "I made the throw.”

Asked if Saltalamacchia should have held the ball rather than attempting to get Craig, Farrell said, “It was a bang-bang play. We have forced a couple throws at third base that have proven costly. Tonight was a costly throw.”

Game 3 had everything, from countless managerial maneuverings (and second-guesses) to enough momentum swings to tire out a pendulum. Think of two heavyweights, leading with the jaws, throwing punches long into the night.

It was Hagler vs. Hearns, Rocky vs. Creed. Red Sox vs. Cardinals.

Cardinals slugger Matt Holliday landed a haymaker in the seventh inning, breaking a 2-2 tie with a two-run double inside the third base bag and down the left field line. But the Red Sox countered in the eighth with Xander Bogaerts' stiff jab of a chopper up the middle that evened the score again after Daniel Nava had plated a run on a fielder's choice.

Farrell left himself open to criticism in the ninth by leaving reliever Brandon Workman to bat against flame-throwing Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal with the game tied and one out in the top of the ninth, even though slugger Mike Napoli was still on the bench. Workman pitched to two batters in the bottom of the ninth, but once Molina singled, Farrell turned to closer Koji Uehara, who allowed a pinch-hit double by Craig before the madness ensued.

Looking back, Farrell admitted he erred by allowing Workman to bat.

“In hindsight, having Workman hit against Rosenthal is a mismatch,” Farrell said. “I recognize it. But we needed more than one inning out of Workman.”

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny opened himself up to questions in the sixth inning by replacing lefty reliever Randy Choate with right-hander Seth Maness, a move that allowed switch-hitting Nava to continue batting left-handed, his dominant side. Sure enough, Nava delivered a single to left field that tied the game, 2-2.

On and on it went until the ninth, when it ended in a way that nobody could've imagined.

"I don't think you finish a World Series game like that," David Ortiz said.

For 109 years, nobody ever had. And whether or not the Red Sox choose to admit it, there wasn’t anything improper about it.

"I don't know what the rulebook says,” Saltalamacchia said. “So, if the rulebook says that's obstruction, you tip your cap and walk off the field and take it like a man."

-scott.lauber@bostonherald.com