Chris Carpenter: not what the Doc ordered

Chris Carpenter had the task of out-dueling Roy Halladay Friday night, and well, he actually did it.  In front of a packed house at Citizen’s Bank Park, the Cardinals’ ace got the Phillies’ lineup to pound the ball in the dirt all night long.  The St. Louis Cardinals, in somewhat improbable fashion, are moving on to face the Milwaukee Brewers for the right to play in the World Series.

A Rafael Furcal triple followed up with a Skip Schumaker double to lead off the game helped the Cardinals earn the one and only run of the night.  Carpenter made the 1-0 stand up, going the distance allowing only three hits.  He struck out three hitters and did not allow a walk.

The Cardinals’ big right-hander recorded 16 groundball outs on the evening.  Nick Punto and Rafael Furcal were rock solid up the middle last night – each guy made all the necessary plays.  Former gold glove winner Albert Pujols made a couple nice plays as well.

In what could conceivably be viewed as an underwhelming year by Carpenter’s standards, the guy in question did not disappoint last night.  He tied up the Phillies all night, locating his fastball and the curveball masterfully.

The curveball was especially nasty on Friday.  The slower version of the pitch which tumbles in over the plate about 20 mph slower than his fastball, has the ability to break about 3 to 3 ½ feet.  He was throwing it in the dirt, and he was throwing it in on lefties, he was just doing pretty much whatever he wanted.

From the first inning on it was apparent Carpenter had his A-game going, and the fans in Philly noticed.  The crowd was real loud only during a couple brief moments, but I’m not so sure how much it would of mattered if they were raucous – Carpenter was in the zone last night.

In the fourth, the crowd got into it as Raul Ibanez had runners on first and third with two down.  He put a charge into one that went deep to right-field, but it fell just a bit short of the wall ending the threat.

Again in the sixth, Chase Utley’s groundball found the outfield, squeaking by Pujols and Punto.  But the Phillies tried to be aggressive, and Utley attempted to steal second on a Carpenter breaking-ball.  Utley got  a great jump, and it looked like Yadier Molina had no shot of throwing out the runner.  But the Cardinals’ catcher made the perfect throw, and Utley couldn’t beat the tag.  It was at this moment where the fear was starting to really creep into the city of brotherly love.

With Carpenter’s pitch count still relatively low after eight innings, he came back out to finish things in the ninth.  Utley led off the ninth, swinging at the first pitch, and he cold-cocked a sinker deep to right-center, but John Jay made a decent running catch at the warning track.

After Ryan Howard made the final out that was that.  This was one of the better pitching performances you will ever see.  It almost looked as though the Phillies were just giving the Cardinals infield practice.

For fans in Philadelphia, Roy Halladay’s no-hitter in the playoffs last year is probably a distant memory.  With the pitching the Phillies had, they were supposed to make a deep run this year – maybe even win it all.  But one guy changed all that last night.  Chris Carpenter and his nasty curveball were very impressive, and it is safe to assume he really pissed off the citizens of Philadelphia last night.