Phillies 10, Cardinals 9
WP – Raul Valdes (1-0, 0.00)
LP – Fernando Salas (0-3, 6.32)
SV – Jonathan Papelbon (13)
ST. LOUIS — The bats came alive for the Phillies in St. Louis and it was much needed.
With the pitchers doing nothing more than throwing batting practice, the Phillies offense needed to be on its best and it was, out-mashing a good Cardinals offense. They beat St. Louis, 10-9, pulling themselves back to .500 on the year.
Pitching wasn’t going to be much of a factor in tonight’s game; well that is if you include the lack of pitching into the equation.
The Phillies jumped all over Jake Westbrook in the first two innings. After giving up a double to Placido Polanco, Westbrook loaded the bases by walking Hunter Pence and hitting Carlos Ruiz with a pitch.
Shane Victorino pushed the first run across on a ground out before Ty Wigginton’s two-run single made it 3-0. Freddy Galvis singled two batters later to make it 4-0.
In the 2nd inning, Victorino hit a two-run double with two outs to give the Phils a quick 6-0 lead off Westbrook, who didn’t make it out of the 4th inning. Joe Blanton then breezed through the Cardinals lineup on seven pitches in the bottom half, giving the impression this game was already well in hand.
Unfortunely for the Phillies, Blanton didn’t have this game in hand blowing the early lead. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Cardinals put up a four-spot on Blanton.
Westbrook helped his own cause, leading off with a single. With one out, Skip Schumaker doubled to put runners on second and third before Matt Holliday’s ground out plated the first Cardinals run.
St. Louis then piled on three more runs on an RBI single by Carlos Beltran and a two-run double by David Freese, cutting the Phillies lead to 6-4.
The Phillies added a run in the 5th to make it 7-4 but Blanton coughed up the lead in the bottom half. After allowing a run to score, he gave up a two-run homer to Holliday to tie the game up, 7-7.
The Phils retook the lead in the 6th inning on back-to-back RBI singles by Galvis and Mike Fontenot. A Freese homer off Chad Qualls in the 7th brought the Cards back within one but Wigginton’s solo homer in the 8th gave the Phils a two-run lead again.
St. Louis tacked on another in the 8th to cut the lead to 10-9 but Antonio Bastardo tightened up to get out of the jam. Jonathan Papelbon pitched
Wigginton busted out of his slump, going 3-for-5 with a homer, two RBIs and three runs scored. Ruiz, hitting in the clean-up spot for the second straight day, had three singles.
Galvis was on fire for the Phillies as well, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Polanco had himself a three-hit night as well.
2B: Polanco (8), Victorino (10), Galvis (12). HR: Wigginton (3).
TTB 