The game certainly didn’t start out the way Roy Halladay planned it, but after a rough first inning Doc settled in for a dominant performance as the Phillies scored an emphatic 11-6 victory to claim game one of the NLDS.
Halladay served up a 3-run homer to Lance Berkman in the first inning to put the Phils in an early hole. After giving up a single to lead off the second, Halladay would not even allow a baserunner the rest of the way. The Phils offense also took its time to wake up as Kyle Lohse threw five innings of one run ball heading into the sixth. That’s where things unraveled for Lohse and the Cards. The Phils offense exploded for 10 runs over the next three innings including a 3-run bomb from Ryan Howard to put the Phils ahead in the sixth.
After gaining control in the sixth inning, the Phillies just cruised. They poured on five more runs over the 6th and 7th while Halladay continued to dominate. With an 8 run lead heading into the 9th, Charlie Manuel opted to pull Halladay after 105 pitches. He went with Mike Stutes for mop up duty, but the rookie ended up loading the bases and was charged with three runs. Ryan Madson then came on and struck out Jon Jay and Matt Holliday to shut the door. The final three runs were cosmetic at best, but certainly a lot of Phils fans were scratching their head as to why Halladay wasn’t left in to finish the complete game.
Halladay was asked during the week if he had any praise for the Cardinals and how they had played over the last month. He decided to quite Shakespeare in his response.
"I heard a quote a long time ago: ‘I came here to bury Caesar, not to praise him.’
Doc gave up 3 runs on 3 hits over 8 innings, striking out 8. The Phils claim a 1-0 lead in the five game series and send Cliff Lee to the hill tomorrow in game two at 8pm.