The Phillies ripped St. Louis starter Edwin Jackson for 2 runs in the first inning on Jackson’s first 5 pitches on Wednesday before their bats went totally flat until the eighth inning.   The Cards came back with a run against  Roy Oswalt in their first on rightfielder Lance Berkman’s 2 out RBI double and took the lead on David Freese’s 1 out, 2 run RBI double in the fourth.   Freese later broke the game open against Oswalt with a sixth inning  2 out, 2 run homer to centerfield.  Meanwhile, Jackson cruised through the sixth inning as Phillies bats retreated into a shell with but 3 hitters reaching, 2 on singles and 1 via Jackson’s only walk.  They went down in order in the seventh before threatening in the eighth against reliever Fernando Salas on singles by pinch hitter Ross Gload and 2nd baseman Chase Utley.    The Phils 3rd and final run scored on a 1 out wild pitch by Salas.  However Utley was stranded at 2nd base as rightfielder Hunter Pence grounded out and 1st baseman Ryan Howard went down on strikes swinging.   The Phils went down in order meekly in the ninth as the Cardinals evened the series, beating Oswalt and Phillies by 5-3 on Freeze’s Homer and 4 RBIs.

In Wednesday’s only the other playoff game, the Arizona Diamondbacks tied up their series at 2 games apiece with the Milwaukee Brewers battering starter Randy Wolf early and often for 7 runs, including 3rd baseman  Ryan Roberts’ 1st inning Grand Slam followed back-to-back by Chris Young’s solo dinger enroute to a 10-6 win.

The only bright spots for Phillies, once their offense ran dry, were 2 excellent one inning relief efforts; an 8 pitch seventh for Joe Blanton and a 10 pitch eighth inning, including a strikeout for Brad Lidge as the last 6 Cards went down in order.

Beyond that, there was little to cheer about as the Phils’ flatter than Israeli lafa offense couldn’t bail Oswalt out after his 2 mistakes, although the game was still reachably close, even after Freese’s dinger.  AP’s game recap provides further notes on Wednesday’s game.

For all of Wednesday’s playoff results in both leagues, click here.

In Friday’s deciding game 5, ace Roy Halladay, who won game 1, is scheduled to oppose Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter.

For all of Thursday’s and Friday’s scheduled playoff games throughout MLB, click here and here.

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In other playoff games, the Arizona Diamondbacks got into the win column as they battered Milwaukee starter  Shaun Marcom for 7 runs enroute to an 8-1 win.  Milwaukee leads the series by 2-1.   In the American League, the Texas Rangers edged the Tampa Bay Rays to win their playoff series by 3 games to 1.   Meanwhile, the  Yankees pounded Detroit for 6 runs in the eighth inning enroute to a 10-1 rout to deadlock their series at 2 games apiece.

The Cards had runners on in every inning of the game but could only plate 2 late-inning runs as Hamels shut out them out through six innings despite giving up 5 hits and issuing 3 walks.   Hamels struck out 8.

AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides highlights on Tuesday’s game:

So much for Francisco’s postseason futility and his lack of success against Jaime Garcia before his game-changer.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa’s decisions in the crucial seventh inning were ripe for second-guessing. He let Garcia bat in the sixth with two men on and then let Garcia keep pitching, and both moves backfired.

Garcia struck out on Hamels’ 117th pitch to end the sixth and keep it scoreless, and just a few minutes later served up a fat pitch that Francisco hammered over the left field wall and into the visitor’s bullpen.

“Well, it didn’t work, so that’s bad managing,” La Russa said. “I’m watching him pitch and was really pleased. I thought he was the guy to continue pitching and I knew the matchups were in our favor. It didn’t work.”

Even Garcia dissociated himself from the call to intentionally walk Carlos Ruiz before Francisco’s homer.

“That wasn’t my idea,” Garcia said. “That’s what (La Russa) wanted to do and that’s what we did.”

Second baseman Chase Utley was perfectly positioned to turn a double play to end the eighth on   Allen Craig’s sharply hit grounder with the bases loaded. Madson allowed Yadier Molina’s RBI single in the ninth before earning the save.

“That was a lot of fun, a lot of fun,” Madson said. “I wish I was a lot better but I guess I was good enough and that’s all that matters.”

After stranding 14 runners to frustrate a season-best crowd of 46,914, the Cardinals are in an yet another win-or-else predicament. They won the NL wild card on the final day of the season, erasing a 10 1/2 -game deficit on Aug. 25 to overtake the Braves.

“Somebody was going to be up 2-1 after this game anyway, so the series doesn’t end just because they’re up 2-1,”  Lance Berkman said.  “We’ll come back out tomorrow and see what happens.”

Several Cardinals said it was no coincidence that neither team scored the first six innings. Shadows during games with late-afternoon start times have bedeviled the hitters and Berkman joked that when he learned Game 3 would begin at 4:07 p.m. CDT, “I threw a tantrum, stomped my feet and stuff like that. Didn’t do any good.”

“I didn’t know it was a homer, I knew I hit it good,” Francisco said. “I saw it bounce over the fence and just pure excitement, pure joy.”

Hamels struck out eight in six scoreless innings and reversed a disturbing trend after allowing nine homers in September, with a pair of doubles by [Albert] Pujols the only extra-base hits. He’s a franchise-best 7-4 in the postseason with a 3.09 ERA.

Pujols and Ryan Theriot had four hits apiece for St. Louis with Pujols getting his 22nd career multihit game in the postseason. The Cardinals came up empty despite three hits in the eighth, including a pinch-hit single by Matt Holliday in only his second appearance of the series.

For all of Monday’s and Tuesday’s playoff results in both leagues, click here and here.

Roy Oswalt hopes to lead the Phillies to a series win in Wednesday’s game 4, thus avoiding a return home to Philly for a decisive 5th game in Citizen’s Bank Park.  He opposes Edwin Jackson who lost and was pounded in his only career outing against the Phils.  Oswalt was 1-1 vs the Cards this season, most recently tossing seven innings of 5 hit shutout ball on September 17th as the Phils clinched the division title with a 9-2 win.

For all of Wednesday’s scheduled playoff games throughout MLB, click here.

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The Milwaukee Brewers beat the the Arizona Diamondbacks in the other NL divisional playoff on 1st baseman  Prince Fielder’s seventh inning 2 run shot off of 21 game winner Ian Kennedy.

AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides highlights on Saturday’s game:

Halladay allowed three runs and three hits, striking out eight in eight innings. He didn’t allow a runner after Skip Schumaker led off the second with a single.

Rafael Furcal led off the game with a single and stole second. One out later, Halladay walked Albert Pujols on four pitches. Berkman drove the next pitch off the mini-scoreboard hanging on the facing off the second deck in right field.

Halladay retired his last 21 batters, and the NL East champions began their all-or-nothing postseason run with a comeback win.

…The offense bailed out Doc.

Howard shook off his season-ending strikeout last October to hit a go-ahead, three-run homer in a five-run sixth inning, sending Citizens Bank Park into a frenzy.

Lohse retired the first 10 batters before Chase Utley hit a double off the right-field fence in the fourth. The righty, who was 14-8 this season, ran out of gas in the sixth.

Down 3-1, Jimmy Rollins singled to start the inning. After Utley struck out, Hunter Pence grounded a single up the middle. That brought up Howard, who heard a lot of criticism last year for taking a called third strike with the tying run on second base to end the Phillies’ season against San Francisco in the NL championship series.

Howard worked a full count before launching a towering drive into the second deck in right-center to give the Phillies a 4-3 lead.

Victorino followed with a single. Ibanez then lined a two-run homer to right to end Lohse’s night.

Lohse allowed six runs—five earned—and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings.

Howard hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh, and Victorino and Ibanez each had RBI singles in the inning to pad Philadelphia’s lead.

The Cardinals scored three times in the ninth off relievers Michael Stutes and Ryan Madson, highlighted by Schumaker’s two-run double.

For all of Saturday’s playoff results in both leagues, click here.

In game 2, lefthander Cliff Lee is opposed by Chris Carpenter.

For all of Sunday’s scheduled playoff games throughout MLB, For all of Monday’s scheduled games throughout MLB, click here.

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The Phillies gave Joe Blanton, and pretty much the rest of their bullpen, as well as lefthander Cole Hamels, as workout in Wednesday’s regular season finale, a meaningless match-up with the Atlanta Braves.  The Phils and Braves traded single runs in the first inning as Blanton again started the game going two innings.  Hamels went three innings and gave up a 2 run homer to Braves 2nd baseman Dan Uggla who slammed a 2 out third inning homer to put the Braves up 3-1.   The Braves got 3 hits in the third, one of the singles wiped out on a steal attempt.  Hamels then settled down giving up a leadoff single in the fourth before retiring the last six hitters he faced in a row.   Meanwhile, Tim Hudson cruised through six innings with the Brave holding their 3-1 lead.

The Phils finally got to Hudson in the seventh and ninth innings as leftfielder Raul Ibanez slammed a 1 out seventh inning double and came around to score on shortstop Jack Wilson’s fielding miscue on catcher Carlos Ruiz’s grounder.    That chased Hudson and began a parade of seven Braves’ relievers over the next seven innings.   The Phils tied the game in the ninth against Braves closer Craig Kimbrel after loading the bases with1 out on a single and 2 walks.  2nd baseman Chase Utley’s sacrifice fly drove in the tying run as Kimbrel, going for his 47th save, was charged with his 8th blown save and wore goat’s ears.  7 Phil relievers followed Hamels into the game and young September call-up Justin De Fratus was credited with his 1st MLB win while David Herndon notched his 1st save in the Braves thirteenth after rightfielder Hunter Pence came up clutch with runners on 1st and 3rd base with 2 out in the thirteenth lining an RBI single to rightfield for the winning run as the Phillies swept the Braves in thirteen Innings by 4-3 to end the Braves’ wild card hopes.

For the Phils, the win was their 102 of the season, an all-time franchise record.  Charlie Manuel (646-488) passed Gene Mauch to become the Phils’ all-time winningest manager.

AP’s game recap for Yahoo sports provides notes on Wednesday’s game.

With the Atlanta Braves being swept by the Phils and folding after holding a huge NL Wild Card lead, coupled with St. Louis Cardinals’ shutout routing of Houston, the Cardinals are now the NL Wild Card team as the division playoffs begin with the Phils facing the Cards in a best of 5 game series for one of the berths to play for the NL pennant.

The Phillies, Cardinals NL divisional playoffs begin on Saturday as ace Roy Halladay is opposed by Kyle Lohse in the opener of a best of 5 series to decide one of the berths for the NLCS.

For all of Wednesday’s scores and recaps throughout Major League Baseball, click here.

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