Phillies eliminate Cardinals, ending Pujols and Molina’s careers

ST. LOUIS (AP) – The Phillies wasted no time in bringing their riotous celebration from the infield of Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals had trotted off to mourn the end of an era, to the visiting clubhouse, where champagne flowed freely and Calum Scott’s ” Dancing On My Own” boomed through the loudspeakers.

After more than a decade in the wilds of baseball, Philadelphia had finally won another postseason series.

It took Aaron Nola, who threw a four-hit ball in the seventh inning, an early home run from Bryce Harper and some brave runs from the bullpen. But by the time Zach Eflin retired Tommy Edman to leave the tie on base, the Phillies had clinched a 2-0 win over the Cardinals for a win in their wild-card streak in the National League by Saturday night.

“Everyone in this clubhouse, on this team, on this organization is super excited,” Nola said. “Just a bunch of selfless guys who will do anything to win a ball game, no matter what it is. It’s a lot of excitement.”

Long known for his September fights, Nola proved to be an October ace. The stalwart right-hander hit six and walked one on 101 pitches before walking with two outs in the seventh. Jose Alvarado then reset longtime St. Louis star Yadier Molina for a pop-up, stranding a runner first.

Then in the eighth, Seranthony Dominguez beat Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to wriggle out of a two-on-one-out jam — leading contenders for NL MVP being a combined 1 for 15 in the series with no RBIs and six strikeouts.

With one last chance in the ninth, the Cardinals got back-to-back two-out singles from Corey Dickerson and Molina. But Eflin, the Phillies’ starter who was getting closer, responded by fouling Edman, giving Philadelphia its first straight postseason win since beating Cincinnati in the 2010 divisional round.

The Phillies face a familiar opponent, NL East champion Braves, starting Tuesday night in Atlanta.

“Our players love being in this situation,” said Phillies manager Rob Thomson, who took over a troubled club when Joe Girardi was fired earlier in the season. “And I’m really proud of that. There are so many guys who have never played in the playoffs and played really well. The moment didn’t overwhelm her and I’m very happy about that.”

Miles Mikolas allowed two runs and two hits for St. Louis before leaving in the fifth with two outs. Albert Pujols had a pair of singles, including one in the eighth in what is likely the last at-bat of his career, while Molina had gone 0-3 ahead of his own single on what will be the last time he will don a Cardinals uniform.

“It was never about me coming back here,” Pujols said. “This was about an organization that opened the door for me to end my career here. My mission has always been to help this ball club win every day.”

The sell-out of 48,515, the third largest in Busch Stadium’s history, was the huskiest to keep the Cards’ dream season alive. Instead, their fans watched as the NL Central champions went down with a whimper, losing in the first round of the playoffs for the third straight season.

“It’s difficult when you know it’s Yadi’s last year and Albert’s last year,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. ”

“Obviously that’s disappointing,” Marmol said, “but here we are.”

Harper, who was strokeless in the opener, put the Phillies ahead when a 76-mph curveball left his 111.6-mph bat in first place of the second inning. The ball sliced ​​through the cold October breeze and landed 435 feet away.

The way pitchers have dominated the wildcard round, it turns out Harper’s single powerful swing could make all the difference.

“I didn’t play well at all. That’s what I’m looking at,” said Goldschmidt. “If I could have played better, maybe we could have won at least one of them, if not both. This is disappointing.”

Nola delivered the final brilliant performance, handing Lars Nootbaar a single to start the game before breaking through the rest of the St. Louis lineup. The next blemish on the right-hander’s line didn’t come until Edman entered the third, and Nola immediately knocked out Nootbaar and floored Pujols with a soft hit to end that inning.

Nola also put up a spectacular defense.

Third baseman Alec Bohm made a stellar sling from Molina’s hard-hitting ball down the line leading to third, and then made an even more impressive hold to deprive Arenado of extra bases in the fourth.

Bohm followed with a ground rule double leading away from fifth. Brandon Marsh put down a brood of sacrifices and after Jean Segura went down on Mikolas’ last throw, Jordan Montgomery went four pitches with Bryson Stott to load bases. Kyle Schwarber followed with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead in Philadelphia.

The Phillies base run? That wasn’t nearly as good.

Harper was kicked out when he tried to take second base in sixth on a single – the call stood after a video review. Moments later, Bohm was picked off first base while a runner stood in third to end what was once a promising inning.

The way Nola and his bullpen lined up didn’t matter.

“We played the game right,” Thomson said. “We pitched well. We have a really good defence. We’ve had a lot of altruistic attacks, you know, guys who gave up, made runners from second to third with no one trying to get extra runs. It was a complete team effort. And I’m really proud of her.”

NEXT

The sweep gives the Phillies an extra day off before traveling to Atlanta, where they beat the defending World Series champions 3-6 in the regular season. The Braves have won 11 of their 19 total encounters this season.

“We know them very well,” Böhm said. “We’re going to go there and it’s going to be competitive baseball.”

The Cardinals head into an offseason with significant changes: Pujols and Molina have said this will be their last year, and retired ace Adam Wainwright could join them. Arenado could opt out of his contract, although that seems unlikely, while pitcher José Quintana and outfielder Dickerson are potential free agency candidates.

“I’ll tell you this,” Wainwright said, “I don’t like not appearing in a playoff series. You can do it two ways: you can take it because it was a good run, or you can take it as motivation never to let that happen again.”