![]() Realmuto, the most reliable of the Phillies’ veteran hitters this season, knocked a slider to center field. Helsley, one of the best relievers in baseball this year, out-dueled Rhys Hoskins to start the inning. Manager Oliver Marmol brought in Ryan Helsley, his superstar closer, for a five-out save, and as the top of the ninth began, the ESPN broadcast flashed a chyron noting that the Cardinals were 93-0 in postseason games in which they led by multiple runs after eight innings. Yepez’s unlikely heroism seemed the logical continuation of the Cardinals’ traditional good fortune in the postseason - and the sequel to the Phillies’ most recent playoff defeat, the death-by- Chris Carpenter-and-Rally Squirrel in 2011. José Alvarado, who’d allowed one run since July, grooved a first-pitch cutter to Yepez, who duly nine-ironed it around the left field foul pole: The first pitch Yepez saw might have been the first real mistake of the game. A few of those, namely Pujols’ drive in the first and Nolan Arenado’s in the fourth, looked dangerous off the bat but died at or near the warning track. Wheeler and Quintana only combined for seven strikeouts, but allowed just eight batted balls with an xBA of. Not the tour de force we saw in Cleveland earlier in the day, but just good enough to keep hitters off-balance. But mostly, it was good pitching by starters Wheeler and José Quintana. Reyburn’s immersive strike zone, Pujols’ concrete legs. The scoring drought had many causes: nerves, home plate umpire D.J. An inning later, the Cardinals came as close as they would ever get to scoring off Zack Wheeler, but with two on and nobody out in the bottom of the sixth, Albert Pujols grounded into a double play, running so slowly that Jean Segura had time to dodge Lars Nootbaar’s takeout slide, double-clutch, and still throw Pujols out by several steps. ![]()
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