The St. Louis Cardinals lost ground to both the Atlanta Braves (1-0 win over the Mets) and the Milwaukee Brewers (10-1 over the Reds) by losing to the Philadelphia Phillies 9-2 as they clinched their fifth straight NL East Division title.
Michael Stutes nearly blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth after getting the first two outs. Four straight singles by the Cardinals from Jon Jay, Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman and David Freese got the Cardinals within 3-2. Brad Lidge came in and got Allen Craig to ground out on the first pitch to the end the inning.
The game was blown open in the bottom of the inning with six unearned runs. Carlos Ruiz reached second when his grounder skipped past third baseman Daniel Descalso for an error. Ruiz went to third on Jimmy Rollins’ one-out single and scored on Shane Victorino’s single up the middle.
After Chase Utley was hit by a pitch, Ryan Howard struck out. Octavio Dotel entered and Hunter Pence hustled out an infield single to shortstop Rafael Furcal to drive in another run. Raul Ibanez then hit a grand slam to put the game away.