PHILADELPHIA _ It took a pair of doubles to put the Cardinals ahead, but when the Phillies had an answer the Cardinals turned to their tried, true, and trusted way to generate offense.
Matt Carpenter put a ball where the shift couldn't get it.
The Cardinals' leadoff hitter turned on a 98-mph fastball in the top of the ninth inning for a home run that sent the Cardinals to 7-6 victory Tuesday night against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The Cardinals had botched a two-run lead in the eighth inning to set up the tiebreaking shot. Phillies reliever Seranthony Dominguez struck out the first two batters he faced in the ninth inning.
He got strike 1 against Carpenter on a 97-mph fastball.
He got strike 2 against Carpenter on similar heat.
He did not sneak the same thing past him thrice.
Carpenter's 12th home run paired with his early two-run double to give the leadoff hitter two extra-base hits in his final two at-bats and three RBIs. His homer made a winner of rookie right-hander Jordan Hicks, who inherited two runners in the eighth, allowed them to score on a double, and then plucked the win by closing out the ninth. Closer Bud Norris was apparently unavailable.
After Greg Holland announced his return to the bullpen with a scoreless seventh inning and a hold of the two-run lead, the Phillies answered in the eighth inning against Hicks. Brought in to face Rhys Hoskins and try to strand the two runners left by lefty Austin Gomber, Hicks allowed a double to the right-center gap that scored two and knotted the game, 6-6.
Hoskins was stranded at second when Hicks got a groundout to end the eighth inning.
The only team in baseball with fewer than 100 doubles, the Cardinals started the seventh inning with 89 of them on the year.
Two turned the game, momentarily.
Carpenter and Jose Martinez stung two-run doubles that flipped the Phillies' lead and gave the Cardinals a lead to hold with a new look to their late-inning mix. Carpenter's two-run double to center field scored two runs and tied the game, 4-4. After Tommy Pham singled to move Carpenter ahead to third base, Martinez followed with a two-run double that gave him his 43rd and 44th RBIs of the season.
The Phillies built their lead against starter Luke Weaver. The young right-hander allowed four runs on six hits and four walks. One of the runs he allowed came on a bases-loaded walk in complicated fourth inning. Weaver allowed two hits, hit a batter, and then walked leadoff hitter Cesar Hernandez to nudge home the Phillies' third run to the game. Two others came on solo homers.
That's how the Cardinals got their first two runs, and really how they've gotten most of their runs in this series.
Sixteen innings into the three-day visit to Citizens Bank Park and the Cardinals had struck out 26 times, hit five home runs, and scored a grand total of seven runs. Pham extended his hitting streak to 13 games with a solo home run off a curve in the third inning. Kolten Wong homered to leadoff the fifth inning and nibble into the Phillies' lead.
A day after tying the game in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single, Wong scored twice from the eighth spot in the order Tuesday.
