St. Louis Cardinals overwhelm Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 – MLB Update
Chris Carpenter put in a brilliant performance as he pitched eight scoreless innings and Allen Craig hit two homers on Sunday, September 19 to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat Philadelphia Phillies 5-0 at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia
Improving their playoff chance, the Cardinals now have a 2-1 lead in the four-game series.
This was only the sixth shut-out game for the Philadelphia Phillies in this season. It was Chris Carpenter who, pitched eight innings, gave up only eight hits and went for five strike-outs with a 3.66 ERA compared to Cole Hamels who allowed four runs in
seven innings that he pitched.
Albert Pujols homered in the first inning to give the team a 2-0 lead as Hamels gave up two hits in the inning while Carpenter went for a scoreless first to keep the lead intact for the Cardinals.
Cardinals’ hitters kept looking for opportunities to take the lead higher. With the best of pitchers available to their disposal, the Phillies kept the Cardinals hitters at bay until Allen Craig had his first homer of the game in the top of the sixth inning
that gave St. Louis a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Chris Carpenter, who has won 10 games in the season with a 3.66 ERA, having played 32 innings, kept pounding the Philadelphia Phillies’ offence. Chase Utely was the only Phillies’ hitter to have three hits in the game, but the 4-0 lead kept the Cardinals
afloat.
Allen Craig had the second homer of the game in the eighth inning when Joe Blanton came to pitch for the Phillies. This was Craig’s eighth homerun of the season in the 66 games that he has played so far with a .314 average.
Carpenter went for a shut-out eighth to keep the 5-0 lead intact for the Cardinals while Fernando Salas came to pitch in the ninth. The closer did not allow even a single hit to conclude the game with a 5-0 win for the Cardinals.
The two teams will meet on Monday where the Cardinals stand a chance to win the series 3-1 while the Phillies will try to level the four-game series.
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