Roy Oswalt fails as Philadelphia Phillies crumple 3-5 against St. Louis Cardinals – MLB Update
Edwin Jackson outpitched Roy Oswalt to give the St. Louis Cardinals a vital 5-3 win in game four of the National League Division Series against Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday, October 5 to level the five-game series
at two-each.
Having a 2-0 record against the Cardinals in his post-season career prior to this game, Oswalt was favourite to prevail in this game but David Freese drove in four runs for the Redbirds to hand Philadelphia’s starter his first post-season loss.
Phillies started impressively, but then lost momentum. Chase Utley’s triple to right-field allowed Jimmy Rollins to score the first run for the Phillies before Hunter Pence drove in a single for Utley to double the lead in the first inning.
Lance Berkman did not allow Oswalt to settle in with the lead and produced a double down centre-field for Skip Schumaker to score and bring the lead down to one run for the Cardinals at the end of the first inning.
Before the game, Albert Pujols had said, "We flip the page and come back ready to play with the same energy we've been having the last six weeks. We've been in this situation before."
Although Pujols failed to hit in his four at-bats, the team came out strong on the offensive front to give their first baseman a chance to extend his career with the Cardinals till at least the Championship Series.
Freese drove in a two-run double to left-field to allow Berkman and Matt Holliday a run each and subsequently give the home-team a crucial one-run lead in the fourth inning. Freese continued with his domination in the sixth inning, smashing a gigantic 428-feet
two-run home-run down centre-field to take the score to 5-2 and virtually bring the Wild Card entrants level in the five-game series.
Oswalt was unglued for five runs in his spell of six innings to finish the game with an ERA of 7.50. Jackson, on the contrary, allowed just two runs in this stretch, winning it for the Cardinals in the end.
The finale is scheduled for Friday, September 7 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and manager Charlie Manuel believes that the Phillies have the stage set to win it all.
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