Phillies Will Need a Doc to Survive NLDS
Philadelphia
just went from over confidence to panic.
A
double, a triple, and a single, to lead-off Game 4 of their National League
Division Series with St. Louis got the Phillies off to a 2-0 lead in the top of
the 1st inning tonight. But it didn’t hold up as the Cardinals
forced a deciding Game 5. A Ryan Howard strikeout and Hunter Pence caught
stealing neutralized a bigger inning. The called third strike was questionable
and the call at second was wrong.
Shane
Victorino’s throwing error – he actually fell – gave the Cardinals a run in the
bottom of the inning.
David
Freese knocked in 2 runs with a double in the 4th and two more with
a home run in the 6th to give the Cardinals what was an
insurmountable 5-2 lead. Edwin Jackson, a pitcher many Phillies fans were
confident the team would hit, settled down and gave up just one more run in the
six innings he pitched.
Michael
Martinez scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 8th to make the
score 5-3, but that’s where the scoring ended.
Roy
Oswalt wasn’t especially sharp tonight, but Howard’s 0-4 with 3 strikeouts was
especially brutal. In fact, Howard went 0 for 8 with 5 Ks in his hometown of
St. Louis for the series.
Chase
Utley’s atrocious base running in the top of the 6th – inexplicably
trying to go first to third on a grounder to shortstop – overshadowed a 2 for 3
night with an RBI. The game was 3-2 and Utley, who was running on the play,
would have been on second with one out. The Cardinals might have walked Howard,
and who knows what happens. Instead, Pence was on first and the inning went
nowhere.
Rollins
finished 2 for 4 with a run scored.
Suddenly,
the Phillies have been pushed to the brink of elimination in the opening round
of the playoffs.
There
will be a doctor in the house Friday night as Roy “Doc” Halladay takes the
mound for the Phillies. With Chris Carpenter opposing him, I’m thinking the
Phils will need his best to avoid a very long winter.
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