Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Posted: 11:30 p.m.Updated: June 22, 1:20 a.m.
By Jim Salisbury
CSNPhilly.com
BOX SCORE
ST. LOUISPlacido Polanco sat at a table in the visiting clubhouse eating a postgame snack late Tuesday night. Its an old baseball custom that players do not interact with reporters while they are eating. But Polanco is not youre average cat. He marches to his own beat. So when he made eye contact with a reporter from across the room, he knew what the reporter was thinking.
Polanco smiled and flashed a thumbs-up sign.
And with that, the Phillies 10-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals went from a good win to a great win.
Polanco was the second of two straight Phillies to be hit by pitches by St. Louis reliever Jason Motte in a wild eighth inning that saw the Phils score nine runs to rally from a 2-1 deficit to an eight-run lead.
MLB
The inning was so ugly for the Cardinals that the normally mild-mannered St. Louis fans actually booed during the frame.
Motte first hit Ryan Howard to load the bases. He then hit Polanco on the left hand with a full-count pitch. That brought home the tying run and sent Polanco to the clubhouse to have an X-ray, which was negative. Polanco was hit just above the pinkie.
Its fine, he said, flexing his hand. Ill be in there Wednesday.
Polancos good health helped make it possible for the Phillies to revel in the eighth-inning rally that saw 14 men come to the plate over a 43-minute span. Forty-three minutes. The Phils had five singles in the inning. They walked four times and were hit twice by pitches. The Cardinals used five relievers in the inning.
The rally came an inning late for Roy Halladay, who was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, but even the stoic pitcher was able to laugh and enjoy the eruption.
I wish I could have stayed in a little longer, but it worked out for us, fortunately, he said. You want to win as a team, first and foremost, and we accomplished that.
Even Phils manager Charlie Manuel, nearing a half-century in the game, acknowledged the strangeness of the eighth inning.
Ive seen a lot, he said. Ive seen some good ones, some bad ones, and some rainouts. Ive seen tie games and the lights go out. Ive seen a whole lot of crap and Ill probably see a whole lot more. That was a little different though.
Cardinals pitchers walked nine men in the game. The Phillies were not about to reject the generosity, not after being shut out on three singles Sunday in Seattle, and not after going without an extra-base hit in this game. They had 11 hits and all of them were singles.
Two of the biggest hits were pinch-hits that drove in runs. Ross Gload plated the Phils first run in the seventh and Ben Francisco drove in the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the eighth. Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Howard added RBI hits after that.
That inning was kind of crazy, Francisco said. Ive never seen that many pitching changes.
One of those changes had Cardinals manager Tony La Russa bringing in a righthander, Motte, for the left-handed hitting Howard after lefty Trever Miller allowed two base runners. La Russa said he liked the matchup better.
It was a very interesting inning, Howard said. I was surprised he made that move. Luckily we were patient because they had trouble throwing strikes and we were able to take advantage.
Prior to the eighth inning, Halladay and Kyle McClellan had hooked up in a pretty good pitchers duel.
The Phils had just four singles and were down, 1-0, when Manuel pulled Halladay out of the on-deck circle in the top of the seventh for pinch-hitter Gload. Halladay, who threw 97 pitches, had gas in the tank, but Manuel had to play for a run with runners on first second and two outs. Halladay was not upset about coming out, and if he was his disappointment should have been directed at the Phillies hitters.
I definitely understood the move, Halladay said. I would have loved to have stayed in the game, but you have to take a chance to win the game.
Halladay did not get decisionMike Stutes backed into the winbut the Phillies have been victorious in each of his last seven starts. Halladay has pitched six or more innings in 62 straight starts, the longest streak by a major league pitcher since Hall of Famer Walter Johnson went six or more innings in 82 straight road starts from 1911 to 1915.
E-mail Jim Salisbury at jsalisbury@comcastsportsnet.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSalisburyCSN.