Albert Pujols ripped an RBI single to snap a tie in the seventh inning as the St. Louis Cardinals overcame a four-run deficit to even the National League Division Series at one game apiece with a 5-4 victory over the host Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday.
After Jon Jay tied the contest with an RBI single in the sixth, Allen Craig led off the seventh against Cliff Lee (0-1) with a fly ball which bounced off the top of center fielder Shane Victorino's glove. Craig ended up on third and Pujols promptly brought him home with a sharp single for St. Louis, which hosts Game 3 on Tuesday.
Although Chris Carpenter struggled with pitching on three days' rest for the first time in his career, St. Louis hurlers retired 15 batters in a row to allow the Cardinals to stage a comeback. Octavio Dotel (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to secure the win.
St. Louis chipped away at the deficit as Ryan Theriot had an RBI double and Jay and Rafael Furcal added run-scoring singles in the three-run fourth inning.
Although Jay was thrown out at the plate by Raul Ibanez to end the frame, Theriot would beat the veteran left fielder's throw to tie the game in the sixth.
Lee dropped to 7-3 in his career in the postseason after yielding five runs on 12 hits in six innings.
Ryan Howard collected his fifth and sixth RBIs of the series with a two-run single in the first inning for Philadelphia, which is attempting to advance to the NLCS for the fourth straight year.
St. Louis | Philadelphia | |
Chris Carpenter | Player | Cliff Lee |
No Decision | W/L | Loss |
3.0 | IP | 6.0 |
2 | Strikeouts | 9 |
5 | Hits | 12 |
12.00 | ERA | 7.50 |
St. Louis | Philadelphia | |
Jon Jay | Player | Jimmy Rollins |
2 | Hits | 3 |
2 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 5 |
.667 | Avg | .750 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
St. Louis | 13 | 0 | 20 | .361 | 20 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
Philadelphia | 6 | 0 | 8 | .194 | 9 | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |