Lohse Bests Halladay as Cardinals Edge Phillies to Win Series
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Pitchers need to have the luxury of an occassional mistake, which comes with offensive support — that which the Phillies have had problems with recently, as well as at various points throughout the season. The Cardinals hit the scoreboard for a duce off of Roy Halladay in the first inning on a leadoff double, a passed ball and a ground out driving in the 1st run. Then, leftfielder Lance Berkman slammed a 2 out solo shot putting the Cards up by 2-0. The Phils came back with a second inning run on catcher Carlos Ruiz’s 2 out RBI single after 3rd baseman Placido Polanco singled and went to 2nd base on a Cardinal fielding error by 2nd baseman Nick Punto on 1st baseman Ross Gload’s grounder. Despite getting 7 hits off of Kyle Lohse, who went seven innings while throwing 112 pitches and striking out 5 to win his 14th game, the Phils could put nothing else on the board through eight innings. Meanwhile, Lohse helped his own cause with a third inning double and scored on Berkman’s single to make the score 3-1. 1st baseman Albert Pujols doubled in the Cards’ 4th run in the seventh. The Phils offense finally awakened in the ninth inning with 2 outs to score 2 runs against relievers Jason Motte and Arthur Rhodes. But it was too little, too late as Octavio Dotel came on to notch his 2nd save getting rightfielder Hunter Pence to ground out to 3rd base on a 1-2 pitch to end it as Lohse bested Halladay and the Cardinals edged the Phillies 4-3 to win their series by 3 games to 1.
The Cardinals’ win over the Phils coupled with another Atlanta loss, this time to the Florida Marlins, cut the Braves’ lead over the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card race to 2 1/2 games. With the Milwaukee Brewers losing to the Chicago Cubs 5-2, the good news from Monday is that the Phillies clinched home field advantage throughout the playoffs, despite Monday’s loss. And, if they reach the World Series, they will have home field advantage there too, by virtue of the NL’s All Star win.
How far can great pitching take you? The Phils may have reached the limit of stretching that envelope of great pitching as their flat offense drifted off to la-la land in yet another game. They better pump some new life into the offense that we thought would take off with the addition of what we thought was the missing piece — Hunter Pence. But, once again, for the 3 game of this 4 game series, Cardinal pitching, this time Kyle Lohse, man-handled the Phils’ offense while ace Roy Halladay was a little off from what we’re accustomed to expect walking an uncharacteristic 4 hitters.
With Cards leading 3-1, having scored their 3rd run on Berkman’s RBI single to left centerfield, the Phils had their one real opportunity, in the third inning, to chase Lohse. With 1 out in the third, centerfielder Shane Victorino singled to rightfield. 2nd baseman Chase Utley reached on shortstop Rafael Furcal’s fielding error, with Victorino advancing to 2nd base. Pence then singled to leftfield to load the sacks. But then Lohse struck out both leftfielder Raul Ibanez and Polanco to end the threat and the inning.
AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides more lowlights of Monday’s fiasco.
For all of Monday’s scores and recaps, click here.
There is no rest for the weary Phillies offense as the Washington Nationals come to town for 4 games, including a Tuesday doubleheader. In game 1, Kyle Kendrick is opposed by lefthander Ross Detwiler. In the nightcap, 2 lefties go as Cliff Lee goes for his 17th win opposed by recent call-up Tommy Milone who notched his 1st MLB win in his last start.
For all of Tuesday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.
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