St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Jason Motte adjusts his cap after hitting a second Philadelphia Phillies batter in the eighth inning. UPI/Bill Greenblatt
Even Albert Pujols couldn’t help this one. The Phillies became the first team to score 10 or more runs without an extra base hit since they did it back in September of 2005, as they beat the Cardinals 10-2 thanks to a horrible 8th inning by the bullpen.
The Phillies score nine runs in the eighth after the Cardinals took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on a sac fly from Skip Schumaker. Both starting pitchers, Roy Halladay from Philly and Kyle McClellan of the Cards were great.
First, back to the bullpen meltdown. Trever Miller replaced McClellan in the eighth and gave up a single to Shane Victorino and a walk to Chase Utley with one out. Tony LaRussa brought on Jason Motte who hit Ryan Howard and then Placido Polanco to tie the game at 2-2. Brian Tallet came in and struck out Raul Ibanez, but gave up the go ahead single that made it 3-2.
Miguel Batista entered to try to stop the bleeding, but it got worse. Back to back walks forced in another run and Jimmy Rollins singled in two more to push the score to 7-2. Maikel Cleto walked Victorino loading the bases again and Utley singled in two more and Howard followed with another single pushing the score to 10-2.
In all, the bullpen walked four in that inning and a season high nine for the game.
Halladay was brilliant as expected. He tossed six innings allowing one run on four hits and two walks while striking out five. McClellan was in line for the win, allowing five hits and just one run in seven innings.
