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Chris Carpenter threw a three-hitter to outpitch old pal Roy Halladay in a duel for the ages and St. Louis edged the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0, Friday night in the deciding Game 5 of their National League Division Series.
The wild-card Cardinals scored in the first inning when Rafael Furcal led off with a triple and Skip Schumaker followed with a double.
And that was it.
“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.”
Heavily favored Philadelphia, which featured four accomplished aces in baseball’s best rotation, never broke through against Carpenter. Ryan Howard grounded out to end the game and hurt his leg coming out of the batter’s box – he limped a couple of steps and crumpled to the ground as St. Louis started to celebrate.
The Cardinals needed a monumental collapse by Atlanta in the final month and major help from the 102-win Phillies just to reach the playoffs. Now they’re heading to Milwaukee for the NL Championship Series starting Sunday following a stunning upset in which they beat three of Philadelphia’s four aces: Halladay, Cliff Lee and Roy Oswalt.
“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.
“I know that we’re capable of going farther in the playoffs. Our goal was to get to the World Series. It’s been that way for two years now.”
To some, the Phillies seemed destined for the World Series because of their big arms. But in a city where the collapse of 1964 is still never too far from memory, and in a town that has endured more than its share of heartbreaks, jinxes and bad luck, a sure thing is never a sure thing.
Three of the majors’ four opening-round matchups went to a deciding Game 5, and all of them were pitching-rich thrillers. Detroit held off the New York Yankees, 3-2, on Thursday night, and Milwaukee beat Arizona, 3-2, in 10 innings earlier Friday.
Then, the showdown between Carpenter and Halladay topped them all.
“Roy Halladay is, at this time, probably the best pitcher in the game, and we were able to go out and jump ahead, which was huge,” Carpenter said. “I think guys were just relaxed and having fun.
“We put ourselves into position where everybody was expecting us to have no chance and we just started playing like the team we knew we were. And we were fortunate to get some help back into it with Atlanta losing and we were playing well the rest of that month.”
Carpenter was over 100 pitches when he took the mound in the ninth. He retired Chase Utley on a fly to the warning track in center and got Hunter Pence on a grounder.
Howard was next, and Carpenter got the big slugger to ground to second to end a most improbable series win.
Catcher Yadier Molina threw his mask toward the mound, and Carpenter turned to the left of first looking for someone to celebrate with before his teammates finally got there, led by Albert Pujols. The congregation settled at second base, as just off to the right Howard was carried off the field and into his dugout.
Howard took a called third strike with the tying run on second base to end the Phillies’ season last year in the NLCS against San Francisco.
The expectations for Philadelphia were even higher this year after Lee returned. The loss meant the teams with the top two records and payrolls in the majors – the Phillies and Yankees – were gone in the first round, even while holding home-field advantage.
“We had a great team this year. We had a great opportunity,” Pence said. “When you have a team like this, it’s definitely disappointing to not come through.”
The pesky Cardinals looked nothing like an underdog. They were the best team in the NL down the stretch.
St. Louis trailed the Braves by 101/2 games on Aug. 25, but went 23-8 the rest of the way and earned a wild-card berth after Game 162 when Philadelphia completed a three-game sweep in Atlanta.
The Cardinals scored three runs off Halladay in the first inning of the series opener on Lance Berkman’s three-run homer. They got to him again quickly in this one.
Furcal lined a triple to the gap in right-center. He did the same off Lee in Game 2, but was stranded that day.
Not this time.
Schumaker then lined a double to right to put the Cardinals up 1-0, stunning a crowd that expected Halladay to be lights-out.
One run wouldn’t seem enough against a lineup that features seven regulars who have been All-Stars. But nearly everyone except Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino struggled.
And Carpenter never flinched.
