It was a match-up of two of the league’s best left-handers; Cole Hamels and Jaime Garcia. With the Cardinals having already put a total of 8 runs up on Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, the Phillies third ace was going to have his work cut out for him. The two hurlers traded zeroes inning after inning, with Garcia’s efficiency (he needed only 71 pitches to get through the first six innings) being matched by Hamel’s ability to punch out batters (he needed 117 pitches, but K’ed 8). At 0-0 going into the 7th inning, this was the kind of pitcher’s duel that many fans were expecting to see in this series.
That frame started innocently enough, with a single by Shane Victorino (who advanced to second on a passed ball). A couple of outs later and it looked like the shutouts would be continuing. The decision was made to walk Carlos Ruiz – the number eight hitter – to get to Hamels’ spot in the line-up. Cole was done for the day though, and Ben Francisco (.244/.340/.364 during the regular season) took his place at the plate. Garcia left a 1-0 fastball up and out over the dish, and Francisco deposited it into the bullpen in left-field. That put the Phillies up 3-0, needing their bullpen to hold for three innings.
Vance Worley took the mound for Philadelphia, and quickly got into trouble with a walk to Allen Craig and a single by Albert Pujols. David Freese knocked Craig in a couple batters later to cut the lead to 3-1. That was the score in the bottom of the 8th, when the Card’s threatened again. Ryan Theriot led off with a single. After a pitching change and an out, Brad Lidge came in to face pinch-hitter Matt Holliday (who didn’t start because of his hand injury) and gave up a single. The line-up turned over, and Rafael Furcal loaded the bases with a single. Craig was up again, in position to tie the game with a single – or perhaps even give St. Louis the lead. He’d have to do it against the Phillies’ closer though. Craig grounded Ryan Madsen’s 0-1 pitch to second-base, and Chase Utley took it to the bag himself to start the inning-ending double play. Rally killed. The Phillies used four different pitchers in the inning, but it ended up working out.
The top of the 9th saw no scoring, but there was an interesting play; with a runner on first, Ruiz hit a ball to center that Skip Shumaker made a diving catch on. The ump called that batter safe, ruling that it was a trap, but after conferring (perhaps partially swayed by Shumaker immediately getting up and throwing to first – to get the double play, which would only happen with a catch) they overturned the original call. Good for the umps for actually getting things right, but it should be noted that their meeting took more time than it would take for an ump in the booth to watch a replay and relay the decision down to the field. Just sayin’.
The Cardinals continued their comeback in the bottom of the 9th, with Albert Pujols hitting a lead-off double (his third; he went 4-5 overall). Yadier Molina singled him in with two outs, but Theriot couldn’t continue the rally and St. Louis fell just short.
With the 3-2 win, the Phillies take the 2-1 lead in the series. They have Roy Oswalt on the mound against Edwin Jackson tomorrow, and Roy Halladay looms for game five if necessary. Tough loss for the Card’s, as the Phillies didn’t do much other than that one big swing, and they pounded out 12 hits and added 4 walks.
