Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals: NLDS Game 3 – MLB Post Game Analysis
After an extended stretch of six scoreless innings from either side, Ben Francisco unleashed his arms for a three-run homer to help Philadelphia Phillies edge past 3-2 against the St. Louis Cardinals in game three of the National League Division Series at
Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on Tuesday, October 4.
Although the Cardinals managed to bag five more hits than the Phillies, their offence failed to score one extra run to stretch the game into extra innings. Albert Pujols expressed his disappointment on the timing of the game and position of the sun, but
he forgot to mention the offensive failure of his team.
After a spell of six scoreless innings, Phillies' manager Charlie Manuel proactively removed ace Cole Hamels from the mound to puzzle the opposition’s dugout. Cardinals’ manager Tony La Russa, however, remained adamant in continuing with Jaime Garcia in
the seventh and this decision proved to be expensive for the home-team in the end.
Garcia matched Hamels’ feat of pitching six scoreless innings upfront, but one loose pitch in the seventh inning changed the game altogether. Francisco homered 405 feet towards left-field to allow Shane Victorino and Carlos Ruiz a run each and subsequently
impose a three-run lead over the Redbirds in the low-scoring encounter.
La Russa reacted late to the situation and removed Garcia after the seventh inning, but the damage had already been done. Fernando Salas and Jason Motte pitched a perfect inning each thereafter for the Wild Card entrants, but Philadelphia’s bull-pen was
competitive enough to conserve the lead and subsequently win the tie.
"Well, it didn't work, so that's bad managing," La Russa said. "I'm watching him pitch and was really pleased. I thought he was the guy to continue pitching and I knew the matchups were in our favour. It didn't work."
Things might have been different if La Russa had been proactive in his approach, but that is where experience comes into play and Manuel has loads of it. Manuel pointed out that he knew this game was important and his team needed to win at least one of the
two games and thus had to strategically handle this situation.
Now, the Phillies are in a position to effectively knock the Cardinals out of the post-season as early as Wednesday, October 5, when the teams face each other for game four of the NLCS.
Pujols, however, remained confident after the loss that the team has the ability to bounce back from this situation. He pointed out that the squad has been playing exceptionally well for the last six weeks and won the Wild Card after eradicating a 10.5 game
deficit to overtake the Atlanta Braves.
Hamels made history when he returned to the bull-pen unscathed. He now has the second lowest earned-run average among all pitchers with at least five starts in the division series. His ERA of 1.82 is second-best to Curt Schilling’s 0.93.
The crunch game attracted a season-high attendance of 46,914, but majority of them went back frustrated by the outcome of the game. With an elimination looming the Cardinals in game four, the Redbirds will want to stage a comeback to make-up for the loss
and push the series back to Citizens Bank Park for the finale. However, they have Roy Oswalt to tackle in game four and their record against him is not decent.
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