Chris Carpenter Shuts Out Phillies 1-0, Cardinals Advance To NLCS

Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay took the mound in Game 5 of the NLDS matchup between the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Philles, and it was the pitching duel we all expected. By the time it was over, Carpenter walked away unscathed, pitching a complete game shutout as the Cardinals moved on to the NLCS with a 1-0 win.

As the Cardinals and Phillies battled in an elimination game, Baseball Nation live-blogged. Below are a few of the highlights.

Howard never made it to first, crumpling into a heap as he ran down the first base line on the play. It appeared his leg or ankle gave out, and the Phillies’ slugger was in serious pain as trainers attended to him after the game’s conclusion. He was helped from the field and moved gingerly to the locker room with the trainers’ assistance a short time later.

It’s unclear what injury caused Howard to go down, but it appears his lower leg or Achilles tendon was affected. We’ll be back with more on Howard’s injury as it becomes available.

After the Cardinals staved off elimination at home on Wednesday, this series came down to a decisive Friday night Game 5 in Philadelphia. The Cardinals were to throw their ace, Chris Carpenter, on full rest, but the Phillies were to counter with Halladay, and there’s nobody you’d rather have pitching the biggest game of the season than Roy Halladay. Roy Halladay is the best starting pitcher in baseball, and so the Phillies were in the best possible hands.

But as Grant Brisbee detailed Friday afternoon, the Phillies with Roy Halladay are not unbeatable. During the season, the Phillies lost eight of the 32 games that Halladay started. Individual baseball games are unpredictable, liable to be decided by surprise performances or weird bounces, and Carpenter turned in just enough of a surprise performance Friday night to lead the Cardinals to a 1-0 series-clinching victory.

Zoinks.

Paper bag time for Phillies fans. Use it to keep from hyperventilating, and keep it to do what you will if the Phillies can’t pick up a run in the ninth.

This special, though?

With seven-and-a-half innings in the books, there’s now an excellent chance this game will finish 1-0.

Since that early pair of extra-base hits, Halladay has been unhittable. The problem with that is that Carpenter’s been as good, but he didn’t give up two extra-base hits in the first inning. That’s the difference. And Halladay’s no stranger to tough-luck losses.

Boooooh-oy! Your production certainly does not meet with our expectations, but we still love you for who you are!...but they couldn’t time it right, so all the cameras picked up was ...

The little things can sometimes come back to haunt you.

Okay, so you already knew that. But when Ron Darling says it on TV, it really seems to matter, you know?

So that’s why we’re going to the top bottom of the fifth still 1-0. As I was writing this, Halladay spun another easy half inning. How does he do that!

It was quite a rotation. Just not quite how the Blue Jays were hoping. And the Jays finished above .500, believe it or not, despite almost 250 innings of the worst starting pitching imaginable. And who would have thought that 12 seasons later, these two would have faced off in a playoff elimination game?

But now the Cardinals will have to play the rest of the way without Schumaker, because in the middle of the third inning, he left the dugout with a trainer, and Jay took over in the outfield. Schumaker was walking under his own power and it’s unclear what’s wrong, but it’s worth noting he flew out in the top of the frame. Maybe that isn’t worth noting. I literally have no idea what the matter is, except that he isn’t suffering from armlessness or anything. Nothing was visibly wrong.

Jay is a fine player and this shouldn’t be much of a setback, but La Russa wanted Schumaker, and now he doesn’t have Schumaker. Raspberries.

We’re going to the third, and it’s still 1-0 St. Louis. One remembers that Halladay cruised in Game 1 after allowing an early homer, and the Cardinals are surely aware that he could start cruising again. He might already be cruising, given his second inning. So there’s still a lot of pressure on Carpenter. But he’s done what he needed to do for the first two innings.

Which, well, Chris Carpenter might need to spin a gem. The Cardinals would certainly like it if he were to spin a gem. But after half of an inning, Halladay has looked mortal, and the Cardinals have a lead.

But some was done, and a lead against Halladay is a lead against Halladay. We’ll see if he settles down after the first inning, the way he did in Game 1.

Lee threw 110 pitches last Sunday, while Hamels threw 117 pitches on Tuesday. There’s no guarantee that either of them pitch tonight, but the option is there, which boosts the depth behind Halladay. Who, of course, is the last pitcher in baseball behind whom you would need to have depth.

You’ll notice that Holliday is starting, and he recently claimed that his injured finger feels a lot better. He could be lying, but he could be telling the truth, and he has an intimidating presence either way.

It’s too bad about that whole “baseball” thing. There isn’t a Phillies fan out there who isn’t nervous. After 166 games, after the embracing the Cliff Lee signing as the coup that it was, after looking past the regular season to get to the playoffs, everything rests on a single baseball game. Baseball doesn’t like to make things simple. For every game you expect, like one with Roy Halladay looking like the magnificent pitcher he is, there’s something you don’t expect, like a squirrel distracting Roy Oswalt.

Halladay pitched in 32 games for the Phillies in the regular season. In eight of those games, the Phillies lost. Here then, are some of odd events that conspired to make the Phillies lose in some Halladay starts:

Game Date/Time: Friday, Oct. 7, 8:30 p.m.

Stadium: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA