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It wasnt as if Charlie Manuel expected Sunday nights game to unfold the way it did, but needless to say, he wasnt surprised.One night after the Phillies sewed up the NL East for the fifth season in a row and celebrated afterwards in the clubhouse with champagne, beer and expensive cigars, the team gave a the day after performance in the 5-0 loss to the Cardinals at the Bank.Even though Manuel made sure to start most of his regulars aside from first baseman Ryan Howard, who will have a cortisone shot for bursitis in his left ankle, the Phillies offense sputtered early and then calmly went to sleep. It wasnt like last night -- it was completely different as far as the noise and everything, Manuel said. Probably after we had a little celebration last night this is kind of normal.At least Manuel and the Phillies hope thats the case.In the first, second and fourth innings, the Phils put runners on base with one out or fewer and the best they could do was push one runner to third base. With one out and two on in the first inning, Hunter Pence bounced into an around-the-horn double play to end the threat. The second inning ended when Ross Gload grounded into a 4-6-3 twin killing, while the Phillies were stopped in their tracks with two on and no outs when Raul Ibanez grounded into the third double play in four innings.From that point, the Phillies got just two more hits.Give the guy credit, he pitched good, Manuel said. He changed speeds good and he was aggressive inside and his sinker was good. He made good pitches, but at the same time the double plays takes the starch out of you. You do that two or three times a game and it makes it hard to score runs.The guy Manuel alluded to was Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter, who held the Phillies scoreless through eight innings on just eight hits and 115 pitches. It wasnt the most efficient of shutouts considering the Phillies put a runner on base in every inning, but it was effective. In fact, the Phillies only had three at-bats with runners in scoring position and two of them ended with double plays.Carpenter improved to 10-9 with the win, marking the third straight season he totaled double-digits in wins. Excluding the two seasons he was injured and made a grand total of five appearances, Carpenter has won at least 10 games in six straight seasons.Still, Phils starter Cole Hamels was just as good as Carpenter -- maybe even better -- for 89 of his 91 pitches. The problem is, two of those pitches led to four of the Cards five runs. Actually, Hamels was often brilliant during Sunday nights outing. He piled up nine strikeouts and scattered seven hits in his efficient seven innings.He just made a couple of bad pitches, Manuel said.One of those bad pitches was an inside fastball to Albert Pujols who nearly smashed it to the Harry Kalas statue on Ashburn Alley inn deep left field. That one, estimated to have traveled 425-feet, made it 2-0. It also was Pujols 36th homer and 94th and 95th RBIs. With five more RBIs, Pujols will have at least 30 homers and 100 RBIs for the 11th season in a row.Pujols hit a fastball and it looked like it was close to him and could have been a ball, Manuel said. But Pujols is Pujols.Yeah, hes good.The two-run blast by Allen Craig -- his first of two homers -- made it 4-0 in the sixth inning and was actually a stroke of dumb luck for the Cardinals. With Ryan Theriot on second after a leadoff double, Cards skipper Tony La Russa signaled for Craig to bunt. When two attempts rolled foul, La Russa removed the bunt signal and Craig went deep.You know ... just the way La Russa drew it up.The guy was trying to bunt and couldnt get it down. Craig hit a curve ball for a home run, Manuel said. Hamels made a couple of bad pitches and he gave up four runs. Outside of that he did fine and we didnt score any runs.Regardless, the Phillies, at 98-53, still have a magic number of 2 to cinch home-field advantage throughout the postseason. One more win could get it done.Well come back tomorrow and get them, Manuel said. We got big Roy Halladay going tomorrow. We have a good chance.E-mail John Finger at jfinger@comcastsportsnet.com