The Phillies’ faithful were silent for quite a while at Citizen’s Bank Park yesterday. Lance Berkman took the first pitch he saw from Roy Halladay deep to right for a three-run bomb, and Cardinals’ starter Kyle Lohse was cruising through the first five frames.
But Philadelphia’s offense, which was quiet on a regular basis in September came out of their funk big time in the sixth. And before the Cardinals knew what hit them, Doc Halladay and the Phillies took game one 11-6.
Kyle Lohse retired the first ten batters he faced, and needed only 54 pitches to get to the sixth. The lone run the Phillies scored at that point could have been avoided if David Freese could have made a play in foul territory a little ways beyond third with two outs in the fourth. But his error allowed Shane Victorino to come back and knock Chase Utley home with a ground-ball single through the infield making it 3-1.
Jimmy Rollins led off the sixth with a sharply hit single. And after Utley struck out, Hunter Pence muscled a single into center. Then Ryan Howard stepped into the box.
Lohse alternated sinkers and change-ups until Howard finally drove the count full. Lohse went back to the change-up, but left it up a little, and Howard pulverized it off the facing of the second deck in right giving the Phillies their first lead of the day. At that moment, a sellout crowd of 46,480 went absolutely bonkers, and things unraveled pretty quickly for Lohse and the Cardinals.
After a coaching visit to the mound, Shane Victorino singled up the middle. Then Raul Ibanez broke things open, taking another hanging change-up for a line drive homer to right which made it 6-3. After that, Lohse was pulled and the night just got worse for St. Louis.
Once he got through his frustrating three-run first, Roy Halladay did what he usually does. After Skip Schumaker lead off the second with a single to right, Halladay went on to retire 21 batters in a row before finally giving way to Michael Stutes in the ninth. Doc ended the day yielding three runs on three hits and striking out eight.
Everybody knows that Philadelphia can pitch. The question is, will they score enough runs? If the Phillies can pepper opposing pitchers like they did today, they might be able to cruise through the postseason.
But let’s make sure we have a clear understanding of what happened today. Kyle Lohse fell apart in the sixth. He owned the Phillies through the first five, but you can’t leave change-ups hanging in the middle of the zone like that. Especially not to Ryan Howard.
Game two tomorrow night should be a good one. Chris Carpenter will be throwing for the birds, while some guy named Cliff Lee will take the mound for the Phillies.