St. Louis Cardinals shatter Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 in Game 4 – MLB Playoffs
David Freese drove in four runs on Wednesday, October 5 to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 in Game 4, levelling the National League Division Series 2-2. The decisive fifth game will now be played on Friday.
Freese has now risen to hometown star with this amazing performance as he went against Roy Oswalt of the Phillies with all impunity. Oswalt gave up a total of six hits, allowing five runs with a 7.50 ERA.
"This is what you worked for," said Freese, a local prep star who came to the Cardinals in a trade for Jim Edmonds after the 2007 season. "Just to do this in front of the fans of St. Louis and a bunch of friends and family, it's amazing."
With this exciting win, the Cardinals have made it utterly demanding for the Phillies to get past in NLDS. The Phillies who were expected to clinch the series here will now have to wait for Friday’s game at Philadelphia where by Chris Carpenter will face
Roy Halladay.
"We're not looking at this like we're just happy to be here and it's David and Goliath," Cardinals’ slugger Lance Berkman said.
Were the Cardinals to win the series, which cannot completely be ruled out, it will deal a severe blow to the Phillies which had won a total of 102 games this season compared to 89 by the Cardinals.
Wednesday’s game began with the Cardinals’ starter Edwin Jackson on the mound throwing at Jimmy Rollins. As Chase Utley came, he had the first hit and run of the game for the Phillies. Hunter Pence singled to centre to double the lead for the team.
Roy Oswalt was expected to unleash unplayable pitches against the Cardinals’ hitters. But the 2-hit one-run first inning saw Lance Berkman bring the lead down 2-1.
David Freese opened the edge of his bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring a two-run double to left against Oswalt, giving the team a 3-2 lead for the first time in the game. With the lead in their favour, the Cardinals made tremendous use of their
pitchers and kept the stakes high.
Freese did not feel satiated with his first two-run double. He hit a two-run homer in the sixth to take the lead to 5-2 for the Cardinals while Arthur Rhodes pitched a shut-out seventh inning to keep the lead intact.
Hunter Pence tried to bring the team back in the game with a single in the eighth against Fernando Salas, but Jason Motte threw a shut-out ninth to have one of the most memorable saves of his career. The Cardinals went on to win the game 5-3 in Game 4 of
the NLDS.
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