Four batters into this game, the Cardinals offense gave Kyle Lohse a three-run advantage over Roy Halladay. For so long, it held up. But it couldn't hold up long enough.
Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez Light Up Kyle Lohse In Sixth
It was still 3-0 St. Louis in the bottom of the fourth when the Phillies pushed across their first run. Even so, the deficit was two, and it remained at two going into the bottom of the sixth. At that point, the Cardinals needed to hold on for just 12 more outs to escape with a huge and unexpected victory.
They might still escape with a huge and unexpected victory, but in order for them to do that, now they'll have to come back. Jimmy Rollins led off with a ground ball single up the middle. Two batters later, Hunter Pence hit another ground ball single up the middle to put the tying run on base.
Another way of saying "tying run on base" is "go-ahead run at the plate." Ryan Howard batted and worked a full count, barely tipping a low strikeout changeup. Two pitches later, Lohse hung a changeup up in the zone, and Howard annihilated the pitch, sending a three-run dinger out to right-center to put the Phillies in front 4-3.
If only it ended there. It didn't end there. Shane Victorino followed Howard with a - you guessed it - ground ball single up the middle. That brought Raul Ibanez, and in a 2-and-0 count, Ibanez got another hanging changeup and lined it out to right. So, 3-1 went to 4-3 to 6-3, and in a flash, Lohse had been chased from the game and replaced by Octavio Dotel.
Lohse’s line? 5⅓ innings, 6 runs. You’d never know from looking at that that Lohse retired the first ten guys he faced. Dotel retired the next two guys to end the sixth, but now the Cardinals are behind three with nine outs to go, and Roy Halladay has set down 15 batters in a row. Things...things don’t look so good for St. Louis.
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