ST. LOUIS _ In the waning days of spring training, with the Phillies a few hours from sending Jerad Eickhoff to Triple-A to open the season, manager Gabe Kapler described the right-hander as "especially interesting right now," implying that it might not be long before he's back in the big leagues.
But it's only the second week of May, and Eickhoff occupies more than merely a spot in the Phillies' rotation. He's their best starting pitcher.
Making his fourth start since getting called up to take the place of struggling Nick Pivetta, Eickhoff put together the best performance of his career in Wednesday's series finale at Busch Stadium. He held the Cardinals to three hits, only one for extra bases, and completed eight innings for the first time in 46 starts to lead the Phillies to a 5-0 victory, their eighth win in the last 12 games.
As an organization, it was a somber day for the Phillies. Longtime team president David Montgomery, who served as the club's chairman for the last four seasons, passed away after a five-year fight with jaw-bone cancer. Kapler and Rhys Hoskins spoke eloquently about Montgomery before the game, and the Phillies are expected to soon begin wearing a patch with his initials _ "DPM" _ on their jerseys.
But Montgomery would have wanted the Phillies to get on with the business of winning a tough road series in St. Louis. They took advantage of sloppier defense by the Cardinals and scored four runs in the fifth inning. Cesar Hernandez, filling in for resting leadoff man Andrew McCutchen, notched three hits, including a home run, and drove in three runs.
And Eickhoff did the rest. He grew up about three hours from here in Evansville, Ind., and with family and friends in attendance, he dominated the Cardinals by mixing his signature curveball with a lively fastball and a devastating slider that produced eight swings and misses. He threw 106 pitches and never got into trouble.
In four starts, Eickhoff has allowed five runs in 30 innings for a 1.50 ERA. He has piled up 31 strikeouts and cemented his spot in a starting rotation that suddenly and quietly has posted a 2.42 ERA over the last 13 games.
The game was scoreless until the fifth inning when the Phillies sent 10 batters to the plate against Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty. It began harmlessly enough with a leadoff walk to J.T. Realmuto, who scored from first base on Odubel Herrera's double to the gap in left-center field.
After Nick Williams singled, Herrera scored when Cardinals third baseman Matt Carpenter bobbled a Maikel Franco grounder. Eickhoff executed a sacrifice bunt before Hernandez cranked a two-run double to open a 4-0 lead.
Hernandez added a solo homer in the seventh inning.
