Philadelphia Phillies beat St. Louis Cardinals 9-2 to win fifth straight NL East title – MLB Update
The Philadelphia Phillies bagged their fifth straight National League East title after a 9-2 hammering of the St. Louis Cardinals at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Saturday, September 17.
Raul Ibanez smashed a Grand Slam in the eighth inning to complete the destruction of the Cardinals and subsequently deny them a chance of qualifying for the postseason. Roy Oswalt bagged his eighth win of the season to promote his case for a stint in the
playoffs after the Phillies ensured their qualification as NL East leaders.
After losing the first game 2-4, the Phillies made a solid start to the game with Jimmy Rollins scoring in the first inning on Hunter Pence’s double to left-field. Jake Westbrook showed resistance for the Cardinals but Placido Polanco double the lead for
Philadelphia in the fourth inning, forcing the starter out of the attack after an ordinary spell of 3.1 innings.
Westbrook was wayward in his spell, allowing five hits and five walks to give the home side an added advantage in the crunch game. He could produce just 37 strikes from his 71 pitches, giving the opposition batters enough leeway to regularly generate hits.
Westbrook lost his ninth game of the season with 12 wins already to his credentials.
Shane Victorino then freed his arms in the sixth inning to smash one towards centre-field, bringing up the third run for Philadelphia and dim the chances for the Cardinals to remain in contention for the playoffs. Jon Jay and Albert Pujols reduced the deficit
to just one run in the eighth inning to re-ignite the game but a six-run eighth by the Phillies swept all hopes of the visitors.
Carlos Ruiz and Rollins added a run each to regain the three-run advantage before Ibanez took complete advantage of loaded bases by hammering a home-run towards right-flank to deny the Cardinals a postseason trip.
Oswalt gave a presentation of the depth in Philadelphia’s rotation, pitching seven scoreless innings to improve his win-loss record to 8-9 for the season. The Phillies are now just four wins away from setting a record for most-wins in a single season and
they will want to reduce the gap over the next two games.
The four-game series stands level at 1-1 with the third-game scheduled for Sunday, September 18.
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