PHILADELPHIA — The pre-eminent ace, it turned out, belonged to the St. Louis Cardinals.
Chris Carpenter tossed a three-hitter to outpitch old pal Roy Halladay in a duel for the ages, and St. Louis edged the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 on Friday night in the deciding Game 5 of their NL division series.
The wild-card Cardinals scored in the first inning when Rafael Furcal led off with a triple and Skip Schumaker followed with a double.
And that was it.
Philadelphia, which featured four accomplished aces in baseball’s best rotation, never broke through against Carpenter. Ryan Howard grounded out to end the game and hurt his leg coming out of the batter’s box. He limped a couple of steps and crumpled to the ground as St. Louis started to celebrate.
Howard has a left Achilles injury and won’t know more about the severity of it until he has an MRI.
“It was some kind of fun,” Carpenter said.
“He’s a great friend of mine,” he said about Halladay, “and like I said, he did a great job tonight also.”
The Cardinals needed a monumental collapse by Atlanta in the final month and major help from the 102-win Phillies just to reach the playoffs. Now they’re heading to Milwaukee for the NL Championship Series starting Sunday following a stunning upset in which they beat three of Philadelphia’s four aces: Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.
“Actually, I don’t know what to say,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games and definitely we had the best record in baseball.
“I know that we’re capable of going further in the playoffs. Our goal was to get to the World Series. It’s been that way for two years now.”
To some, the Phillies seemed destined for the World Series because of their big arms. But in a city where the collapse of 1964 is still never too far from memory, and in a town that has endured more than its share of heartbreaks, jinxes and bad luck, a sure thing is never a sure thing.
Trailing two games to one, the Cardinals began their comeback with a win in Game 4. That night in St. Louis, a squirrel scampered across home plate as Schumaker batted in the middle innings. If the Cardinals keep winning, their fans will certainly go nuts, thanks to their “Rally Squirrel.” Coincidentally, a squirrel was caught at Citizens Bank Park before Game 5. Not a good omen, apparently, for the Phillies.
Three of the majors’ four opening-round matchups went to a deciding Game 5, and all of them were pitching-rich thrillers. Detroit held off the New York Yankees 3-2 on Thursday night, and Milwaukee beat Arizona in 10 innings earlier Friday.
Then, the showdown between Carpenter and Halladay topped them all.
“Roy Halladay is, at this time, probably the best pitcher in the game, and we were able to go out and jump ahead, which was huge,” Carpenter said. “I think guys were just relaxed and having fun. We put ourselves into position where everybody was expecting us to have no chance. And we were fortunate to get some help back into it with Atlanta losing, and we were playing well the rest of that month.”
Carpenter walked none and struck out three in the matchup of Cy Young Award winners who were longtime teammates in Toronto. Halladay struck out seven in eight innings.
Star of the game
Chris Carpenter
Heavily favored Philadelphia never broke through against the St. Louis right-hander, who tossed a three-hitter in the series-clinching victory. Carpenter had thrown more than 100 pitches when he took the mound in the ninth. He retired Chase Utley on a flyball to the warning track in center and got Hunter Pence and Ryan Howard on grounders.
Key moment
Cards get to Halladay early
St. Louis had scored three runs off Philadelphia ace Roy Halladay in the first inning of the series opener on Lance Berkman’s three-run homer. The Cardinals got to him again quickly in this one. Leadoff hitter Rafael Furcal lined a triple to the gap in right-center field, and Skip Schumaker then lined a double to right to put the Cardinals up 1-0, stunning the sellout crowd at Citizens Bank Park.
