When the St. Louis Cardinals sent Colby Rasmus and a few other players to Toronto for a package headlined by Edwin Jackson, Mark Rzepcynski, Octavio Dotel, their focus was clear: Win now. However great of a player Colby Rasmus might grow into, the sum of the parts from the trade would help them more in 2011 than Rasmus alone. Tonight, that trade paid some serious dividends as the Cardinals kept their season alive in the face of elimination, taking Game 4 of the NLDS from the Phillies 5-3.
Jackson started for the Cards and immediately found himself in trouble. Jimmy Rollins hit a ground-rule double on the first pitch of the game. Three pitches later, Chase Utley tripled him in. On the very next pitch, Hunter Pence singled Utley home. Five pitches, three hits, two runs. Not what the home crowd was looking for in an elimination game. Jackson clamped down after that, though. He made it through six innings and only allowed three more baserunners after starting the game off with three hits.
Limiting the Philllies to two runs in the first after the ugly start kept the Cardinals’ offense within striking distance, and they took advantage.. They immediately started chipping away when Lance Berkman doubled in Skip Schumaker in the bottom of the first, while Shane Victorino flopped around in the outfield trying to pick up the ball. David Freese took over from there, doubling in Berkman and Matt Holliday in the fourth to give the Cards the lead, then hitting a two run homer in the sixth to build the lead to 5-2.
At that point, it was time for Tony La Russa to hand the ball over to his bullpen. After Arthur Rhodes got the first out of the seventh, Dotel came in and got the last two outs of the inning. After Fernando Salas gave up a run to let the Phillies within two, Rzepcynski came in to strike out Ryan Howard, who represented the tying run in the top of the eighth. That really represented the Phillies’ final charge, and Jason Motte nailed down the save with a 1-2-3 ninth.
And so, the Cardinals have life. In fact, they’re just one big Chris Carpenter start away from winning their first playoff series since the 2006 World Series. The Phillies are hardly dead in the water, though, since they’re going home for the series’ ultimate game and they have a guy named Roy Halladay starting Game 5 for them.
With the exception of the Phillies 11-6 win in Game 1, this series has been about as close as playoff series get, with the Phillies and Cardinals trading one-win victories in Games 2 and 3 before the Cards’ two-run win tonight. It’s going to give us one more game; a pitcher’s duel between old teammates with a trophy case of Cy Youngs between them. It’s hard to ask for more from a best-of-five series.
