PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies went after Roy Halladay two winters ago for situations like this, an ace among, as it turned out, four aces to throw out there in must-win situations.
Halladay did his part Friday night. But in a game in which ultimately the right-hander had to be perfect, he came close — but not close enough.
Halladay lost a classic duel with one of closest friends in baseball, St. Louis' Chris Carpenter, when he gave up a triple and a double to the game's first two batters. That one run was enough to give the Cardinals a 1-0 win in the decisive fifth game of the National League Divisional Series and bring what was touted as the greatest Phillies season ever to a bitter end.
"It's something that won't sit well for us this winter," Halladay said after allowing six hits and striking out seven over eight innings. ""It's the same [feeling] as last year. I think the hard part is, you think about the work you put in over the course of the year, and all the anticipation, all the excitement, and all of a sudden, that dissipates. It's tough, it's hard to have it end like that."
In a script that was eerily like his first-game start, the Cardinals got to Halladay in the opening inning. Only this time, the Phillies offense wasn't able to get him off the hook.
Rafael Furcal lined Halladay's fourth pitch to deep right center, legging out a triple in part when the throw from the outfield sailed over the cut-off man.
Halladay then jumped ahead of Skip Schumaker 0-2, but the Cardinal center fielder fouled off five of the next seven pitches while working the count even, then lined a double to right to drive in the game's only run.
"They came out aggressive; they came out to try and get us early," Halladay said. "[The pitch to] Furcal was up, and Schumaker, it was a good at-bat. I threw him two or three pitches that were good pitches [and] he just kept fouling them off. He's taking balls on the edge, then got a curve ball that … I didn't think it was a terrible curve ball. It was just a good at-bat. I threw a lot of pitches and really had to work."
"He came right out and went right at Furcal, and Furcal jumped his fastball," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Actually, that turned out to be the big hit of the game."
Halladay allowed just three more baserunners over the next six innings before running into an eighth-inning jam when the Cardinals loaded the bases on a two-strike single by Carpenter, a throwing error on a bunt by Carlos Ruiz, a sacrifice and an intentional walk toAlbert Pujols.
But with the 46,530 roaring on every pitch, Halladay struck out Lance Berkman — who had hit a three-run homer off him in the first game — and got Matt Holliday to fly out to left on his 126th and final pitch.
""The thing that will stick out to me, this is by far the greatest place I've ever played, and the greatest fans I've ever been around, and that was as loud as I've ever heard it here," Halladay said of that inning. "It was a special feeling to be out there and have the fans behind me like that. I was just trying to go pitch-to-pitch and do everything I could…it was really electric."
Halladay came to Philadelphia in search of a championship, just as another Doc did some 35 years ago, chasing an NBA championship across the street. It took Julius Erving eight years to get his ring. Halladay's now 0-for-2.
"When I came over here I didn't think it was going to be easy," Halladay said. "I knew it was gong to be hard. I knew that it's not something you do every year. I really enjoy the process of going after it and playing these games and getting to this point of the season. Hopefully, we get to the point where we get some things going our way.
"Honestly, I don't care where you go, there's no team that's guaranteed to win anything. You hate to lose through all this, [but] this is why you play to play in these games, to be in these games. Ultimately winning a World Series is great, but I think that going after it is even more fun, and the fact that it's not easy, the fact that you don't do it every year, makes it even more fun to go after it and even more of a challenge.
"I just think that you get to this point in the season, you've got to catch some breaks and have things go your way," he continued. "The last couple of years the teams that just squeaked in had things going for them, and they were the teams that beat us [San Francisco in 2010, and now the Cardinals]. When you get to this point, everybody's good. We're not necessarily lacking anything. Sometimes things are really going your way, and other times you've got to fight to make it work, and as much as we were fighting, it didn't work."
