The Cardinals finished off a season-opening sweep of the Phillies on Thursday with a 4-2 win in Philadelphia. Jim Edmonds’ RBI single in the fifth inning broke a 2-2 tie and proved to be the game-winner. The Cardinals scored all four of their runs in the inning. Starting pitcher Jason Marquis, who was the National League’s top hitting pitcher in 2005, started the scoring for St. Louis with an RBI double that scored Aaron Miles. Later, Albert Pujols began a string of three straight RBI singles for the Cardinals when he knocked in Marquis. Edmonds got his RBI next and Scott Rolen followed up by driving in Edmonds.
Marquis got into a little trouble early on when he served up an RBI doubles to Mike Lieberthal in the second and Chase Utley in the third to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. He was pulled in the sixth inning after allowing two runs on five hits and three walks. Marquis finished with five strikeouts.
From there, the bullpen was almost perfect. Ricardo Rincon, Josh Hancock, Randy Flores and Jason Isringhausen combined for 3 1/3 innings of no-hit baseball. Hancock’s walk to Lieberthal was the bullpen’s only blemish on Thursday. Jason Isringhausen put the side down in order in the ninth to pick up his second save of the season.
The game also marked the end of Jimmy Rollins’ hitting streak. He went 0-for-4 and saw his stretch of 38 games with at least one base hit came to a close. It was the seventh-longest hitting streak in Major League history.
