Bullpen falls apart again; Phils lose Crawford, too
PHILADELPHIA » Matt Carpenter had a hunch a fastball was coming. When the pitch arrived, he delivered.
Carpenter hit a tiebreaking solo homer with two out in the ninth, helping the St. Louis Cardinals edge the Philadelphia Phillies 7-6 on Tuesday night.
Carpenter also had a tying two-run double in St. Louis’ four-run seventh. Tommy Pham homered and singled for the Cardinals, and Kolten Wong also went deep.
Odubel Herrera and Carlos Santana connected for the Phillies, who suffered a hurtful loss when infielder J.P. Crawford took a pitch off his hand and was left with a fracture.
Seranthony Dominguez (1-1) struck out the first two batters in the ninth and had Carpenter in a 0-2 hole. But Carpenter lined the next pitch, a 98-mph fastball, over the wall in right to extend his homer streak to three games.
Carpenter noticed Dominguez shake off catcher Jorge Alfaro just before the 0-2 pitch and believed the right-hander wanted to throw a fastball.
“I wouldn’t say I sold out for it, but I was ready for it,” he said.
A hard-throwing rookie, Dominguez began his career by tossing 15.2 scoreless innings and entered with 27 strikeouts and a 1.27 ERA in 21⅓ innings.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Dominguez’s pace actually helped Carpenter.
“You’ve got a guy with that live of an arm, you just need to get the barrel to it,” Matheny said. “It was a nice swing path.”
The Cardinals trailed 4-2 before rallying against Vince Velasquez and Tommy Hunter.
Velasquez got the first out of the seventh before a single and hit batsman brought manager Gabe Kapler to the mound. Hunter got pinchhitter Greg Garcia to line out to left before Carpenter doubled, Pham singled and Jose Martinez made it 6-4 with another two-run double.
The Phillies tied it in the eighth on Rhys Hoskins’ tworun double. Austin Gomber started the inning, but was lifted for Jordan Hicks (3-1) with two out and runners on first and second. Three of Hicks’ four pitches to Hoskins were fastballs that registered at least 100 mph, but the slugger drove the final 101-mph heater into the gap in right-center.
Hicks pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two, to secure the victory.
“Frustrating game to lose, obviously,” Kapler said.
The Phillies opened the scoring with Santana’s RBI groundout in the first. Pham extended his career-best hitting streak to 13 games with a two-out homer to deep left in the third, tying it at 1.
Herrera continued his hot hitting against St. Louis by driving the first pitch he saw in the third, a 79-mph curveball, into the seats in right for a 2-1 Phillies lead.
Cesar Hernandez’s basesloaded walk in the fourth made it 3-1, but Philadelphia wasted a chance for more when Luke Weaver got Hoskins to pop out to shortstop before fanning Herrera to leave the bases full.
BAD BREAK
Crawford could miss four to six weeks after being hit by a Weaver pitch in the fourth, fracturing his left hand.
“It’s really tough,” Kapler said. “I feel for him the man. I feel for him the player.”