Phillies end five game losing streak behind dominant Nola

By: Rebecca Serad, Sports Talk Philly Staff

Final: Philadelphia Phillies 5, St. Louis Cardinals 1 ❖ Attendance: 23,623

PHILADELPHIA — Coming into today's game, the Philadelphia Phillies (23-48) were winless in their season series against the St. Louis Cardinals (33-38). They were hoping to pull out a win to put a stop to their losing streak against the Cardinals this season and their five-game losing streak overall. Phillies starter Aaron Nola was excellent through 7.1 innings, allowing only one run and striking out eight. He had fantastic command of his pitches and provided the Phils with the excellent starting pitching that they've been looking for all season. Pat Neshek completed the eighth inning for Nola and Luis Garcia threw a scoreless ninth inning to secure the victory.

The Phillies offense finally perked up enough to support a starting pitcher. Tommy Joseph had a solid game with two hits, including a homer, and knocked in three runs. The big positive was that the Phillies were taking advantage of mistakes by the other team. The Cardinals committed three errors and it led to the Phils scoring three unearned runs in today's match-up.

WP: Aaron Nola (4-5, 4.32 ERA) ❖ LP: Carlos Martinez (6-6, 2.87 ERA)

Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next

Game Summary

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
STL	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	4	3
PHI	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	X	5	7	1

The Phillies got off to a good start against the Cardinals. With one out, shortstop Freddy Galvis golfed a homer over the right field wall to give the Phils a 1-0 lead. Odubel Herrera walked to bring Maikel Franco to the plate. He grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.

The Phils tacked on in the fifth. Tommy Joseph led off the inning with a home-run to left field. Andres Blanco followed with a single. Catcher Cameron Rupp reached on an attempt at a force out. Cardinals pitcher Carlos Martinez tried to throw out Blanco at second, but second baseman Paul DeJong missed the catch. This put runners on first and second for pitcher Aaron Nola. He failed to lay down the sacrifice bunt and was the first out of the frame. Cameron Perkins followed with a strike-out of his own for the second out, which brought Galvis to the plate. He singled to shortstop Aledmys Diaz, who then committed a throwing error. Because there were two outs, Blanco was running on the play and ended up scoring the second run of the inning. Herrera lined out to end the frame.

The Cardinals got one back in the eighth. DeJong hit a slider into the left field bleachers to make it a 3-1 ballgame. Nola struck out Greg Garcia, but was removed after walking Matt Carpenter. Reliever Pat Neshek got Tommy Pham to ground into a double play to get out of a potential jam.

The Phils got that run back and more in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Herrera reached base on a fielding error by left fielder Jose Martinez and advanced to second. Reliever Kevin Siegrist opted to intentionally walk Franco to face Daniel Nava. He walked to load the bases. Joseph singled up the middle to score Herrera and Franco. Nava was thrown out trying to advance to third on the throw, but the Phils had already extended their lead. That was all they needed to secure the victory over the Cardinals.

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Starting Pitchers