St. Louis Cardinals defeat Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 to win NLDS – MLB Playoffs
The battle belonged to the best. Chris Carpenter threw a shut-out on Friday, October 7 to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 in the decisive game of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies with the most wins throughout the season could not end their glorious march to ultimate success and fell to the best ace of the Cardinals, Chris Carpenter. Giving up only three hits, Carpenter concluded the game with a 3.00 ERA.
Roy Halladay, engaging in one of the most memorable duels of baseball, allowed six hits and gave up a run to Skip Schumaker in the first inning, which changed the fate of the game.
Facing the duel against Halladay, Carpenter hid his nerves and maintained poise. "It was some kind of fun," Carpenter said. "He's a great friend of mine," he said about Halladay, "and like I said, he did a great job tonight also."
Interestingly, three of the playoffs entered into the exciting fifth game, leaving much to speculate on. All the same, all three were won by the teams with the best starters. Brewers did it through their ace, Detroit got on the Yankees and Phillies could
not hold off the Cardinals.
But the single most discontenting moment would have fallen on the Phillies. Remaining almost unbeatable throughout the season, they could not remain invincible.
"Actually, I don't know what to say," Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel said. "I just got through talking to our team, and basically when I look at it, we played 162 games, and definitely we had the best record in baseball."
As much as Chris Carpenter and Halladay were looking forward to this game, the two never engaged in or out of the ground for anything that would show any hostility. Both maintained their calm, behaved responsibly and played professionally.
Halladay won a total of 19 games in the season in the 32 appearances with a striking 2.35 average. A lot of hopes were attached to him for Friday’s game, but things did not go his way.
With Schumaker scoring a run in the very first inning, Chris Carpenter threw some of the best innings of his career to wrap up the game with 1-0 victory and also take the National League Division Series, qualifying for the NLCS to face the Milwaukee Brewers.
The Phillies will be disappointed as their amazing season has come to an end. Both teams fought hard throughout the series, but the Cardinals were just too strong in the end.
It will be interesting to see the Cardinals carry their winning momentum and go for a spot in the coveted World Series.
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