BOX SCORE
The Phillies opened the 2011 postseason with a rousing 11-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 1 of the best-of-five National League Division Series on Saturday night.
Roy Halladay pitched a beauty and Ryan Howard led a late-arriving offense with four RBIs.
The Phillies are 8-1 in Game 1s since the start of the 2008 postseason. Teams that have won Game 1 of a National League division series have gone on to win the series 29 times while losing just three.
Starting pitching report: Halladay survived a shaky first inninghe allowed a single, a walk and a three-run homer to Lance Berkmanon his way to eight innings of three-hit ball. The righthander struck out eight and walked just one. He allowed a leadoff single in the second inning and not another hit the rest of the way. He retired the final 21 batters he faced. Halladay threw 105 pitches.
Cardinals righthander Kyle Lohse retired the first 10 Phillies of the game, but could not get through the middle innings. He allowed five runs in the sixth, all on a pair of homers. Lohse ended up allowing seven hits over 5 23 innings.
Bullpen report: Michael Stutes allowed three hits and was charged with three runs in the ninth. Ryan Madson struck out the final two batters of the game.
The St. Louis bullpen allowed five runs.
At the plate: After failing to drive in a run in nine games and 33 at-bats in the postseason last year, Howard knocked in four with a game-changing three-run homer in the sixth and a sacrifice fly in the seventh. Raul Ibanez had three RBIs with a two-run homer and a run-scoring single. Shane Victorino had a pair of RBI singles. Hunter Pence had a two-run single. Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley scored three runs apiece. Rollins, Utley and Pence, the Phils first three hitters, were a combined 7 for 14 with eight runs scored.
MLB
The Cardinals entered the ninth inning with just three hits. The Phils ended up out-hitting the Cards, 14-7.
Berkmans three-run homer in the first was the bulk of St. Louis offense.
In the field: Cardinals third baseman David Freese gave Victorino a new life when he dropped a tough, foul pop up down the left field line with two outs in the fourth. Victorino capitalized on the second chance and singled in the Phillies first run.
At the turnstiles: The attendance of 46,480 was the third-largest in stadium history.
Up next: Chris Carpenter (11-9, 3.45) and Cliff Lee (17-8, 2.40) are the pitchers in Game 2 Sunday night. First pitch is 8:37 p.m.
Carpenter is 7-2 with a 4.14 ERA against the Phils in his career. Lee is 3-1 with a 1.48 ERA in four career starts against St. Louis.E-mail Jim Salisbury at jsalisbury@comcastsportsnet.com