The Phillies stun the Cardinals with a six run rally in the ninth inning to take game one, 6-3.
Both starters were very good, combined they only allowed 4 hits. However, Zack Wheeler did go deeper into the game than Jose Quintana did. Wheeler allowed a hit to the first hitter he faced, a sharp grounder through the hole between first and second, then Albert Pujols smoked a ball to straight away center field which ended up being a .820 xBA flyout. Wheeler bounced back from two extremely hard hit balls with a painted 99 mph fastball for a strikeout, and a flyout to RF. It didn’t take long for Wheeler to settle in after the first inning, he went 1-2-3 in the second and third innings, getting 5 of the 6 outs across those frames via the air. Wheeler had a scare in the fourth inning, on back to back pitches he hit Paul Goldschmidt in the forearm with a 98 mph sinker then he gave up a .840 xBA flyout to Nolan Arenado, that very well could have gone over the fence if it had not been for the windy conditions. Wheeler got the benefit of a call from home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn, on a backdoor curveball that was off the plate but called a strike to get him out of the fourth. In the fifth inning, the first two hitters he faced both worked 7 pitch AB’s however neither one of them managed to get on base. Wheeler got the last out of the inning on a fastball down the middle of the plate, future hall of famer Yadier Molina took it for a called third strike. To start the sixth inning Wheeler allowed just his second hit of the game, then followed it up with a walk. He got two groundouts including one for a double play to get out of the inning. Wheeler worked into the seventh inning, in which he faced just one hitter but he did his job getting Nolan Arenado to flyout to center field. The Phillies pulled Wheeler after 96 pitches, his final statline: 6.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 K. Wheeler is usually very good at not giving up hard contact, he finished in the top 6% of the league for average exit velocity this season, and has finished in the top 10% in each of the past 3 seasons. However in this game his average exit velocity was 92.4 mph, the Cardinals were just unable to string together enough offense to put any runs up against Wheeler, who escaped with a much better statline then he probably should have.
The Phillies called on Jose Alvarado to finish the seventh inning. Alvarado allowed a two out walk to Dylan Carlson, which would quickly bite him as pinch hitter Juan Yepez hit a two run bomb on the first pitch he saw. This swing from Yepez felt like the end of the game, as both offenses had been stagnant up to this point, and the two runs felt insurmountable in the moment. Alvarado got a ground out to 3B to end the inning. David Robertson worked the bottom half of the eighth inning. He struck out Tommy Edman looking, on a back door cutter, Edman didn’t swing once in his 6 pitch AB. Robertson then struck out Lars Nootbaar, and got a tapper back to himself off the bat of Pujols to end the inning. Both Robertson’s cutter and curveball looked good. His curveball has been a great weapon all season long, with a -2.2 RV/100, .093 BAA, and a 49.4 K%. Zach Eflin was tasked with picking up the save in the ninth once the Phillies went on their rally, he managed to only surrender one run after allowing 2 hits and a walk in the inning. Eflin struck out Yadier Molina on a perfectly placed cutter to end the game
The pinch hit at-bat of Juan Yepez was the only run production for the Cardinals. It was also their only extra base hit, and there was no Cardinal with a multi hit game.
The Phillies offense looked absolutely abysmal for about 8 innings, before a six run rally in the ninth. The run scoring was started by Ryan Helsley’s inability to put the ball in the strike zone, he allowed a base hit to J.T. Realmuto, then walked back to back hitters, with the bases loaded Helsley hit Alec Bohm to give the Phillies their first run of the game. The Cardinals then made a move to their bullpen, but this did not stop the run scoring. Jean Segura drove in 2 on a single into RF, then Bryson Stott reached on a grounder to 1B that Paul Goldschmidt tried to throw home on but Edmundo Sosa beat the throw to extend the Phillies lead to 4-2. At this point the entire crowd at Busch Stadium was stunned, and apparently so was Nolan Arenado as he let a routine grounder get right past him for a RBI single into LF. Kyle Schwarber then hit a sac fly to give the Phillies their sixth run of the inning. Rhys Hoskins the man who started the inning was up at the plate again, unfortunately he struck out in both plate appearances in the inning.
Jose Quintana a very underrated trade deadline acquisition, held the Cardinals in the game his entire outing. Quintana went 1-2-3 in the first and second innings, having no exit velocity over 90 mph in the first and no EV over 85 mph in the second. Quintana allowed his first hard hit ball in the third, fortunately it was a ground out to 2B. He then allowed a walk and a single in back to back at-bats, but bounced back with a strikeout and a ground out to escape the frame. Quintana quickly got a flyout and a strikeout in the fourth inning, but then engaged in an 8 pitch battle with Nick Castellanos in which there were 4 foul balls, ultimately though Quintana won getting Castellanos to ground out to 3B. In the fifth inning Quintana worked himself out of a runner on second and no out situation. He allowed a leadoff double to Alec Bohm, who turned on a 90 mph fastball. Quintana then induced two ground outs and a flyout to escape the jam. Quintana just like Wheeler faced one batter in the next inning before being pulled. He would strikeout Schwarber on a sinker after throwing him 4 consecutive curveballs. Quintana finished with the statline of: 5.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 K. While the strikeout and swing and miss numbers weren’t high, Quintana pitched to soft contact all night. He held the Phillies to a .166 xBAA, and a .073 xBAA on his curveball which was working for him all night.
Jordan Hicks was tasked with finishing off the sixth inning, and he did just that. Hicks got an infield pop up to 2B and a groundout to first. The groundout was a six pitch at-bat in which Hicks threw six sinkers all 99 mph or higher. Giovanny Gallegos got the top of the seventh, he induced a groundout of the bat of Harper for the first out of the inning. Then he struckout Castellanos on a slider, and got Bohm to flyout to RF. Gallegos had his slider working well just as he has done all year, on the season his slider has a .266 SLGA and a 47.5 Whiff%. In the eighth inning Gallegos faced two more hitters before being pulled, he got a lineout and then walked Stott on 4 pitches. The Cardinals then called on Ryan Helsley to get a 5 out save. He got the first two no problem, finishing off the eighth inning with a strikeout and a pop out. Then the ninth inning came, he struck out the first hitter in the inning, but a loss of command most likely due to a lingering finger injury from the end of the regular season started to spiral things out of control. Helsley was pulled after allowing 4 straight hitters to reach base. Helsley was unable to spot his 4-seamer the entire inning, missing armside on what felt like every single one. The Cardinals hoped that Andre Pallante would stop the bleeding, and he did he best to. A grounder with a .160 xBA got through the infield to score two, Pallante then got a grounder right to 1B Paul Goldschmidt who tried to save a run but most likely made the wrong decision by throwing home instead of taking an out when they needed one badly. He then got a .130 xBA grounder right to his 9 time gold glove third baseman, who just whiffed on it allowing another run to score. He then allowed a sacrifice fly, which also had a xBA under .200. Pallante finally decided to get his own out, striking out Rhys Hoskins looking. Pallante is going to get stuck with a 27.00 ERA for this outing, but he was so much better than that. He got put in to preserve a 2 run lead with the bases loaded and one out, he got 3 straight ground balls that could have easily been routine outs. Instead he gets tagged with 2 ER in 0.2 IP.
This season the Cardinals were 74-3 when leading after 8 innings, they lost this game because of an unfortunate lingering injury to their All-Star closer, and some shaky defense in the top half of the ninth inning. They will look to rebound in game 2 to hopefully save their season, while the Phillies will look to move ahead and face the Braves in the NLDS.