Jaime Garcia watched in wonder as teammate Brandon Moss launched a moonshot at Busch Stadium.
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Philadelphia Phillies’ first baseman Ryan Howard led his team to their 16th win of the year Tuesday against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Moss’ knock replaced a 456-foot shot by Jay Bruce on September 22, 2015.
“It was a bomb”, Garcia said. He was 2-5 AB, and one of those two hits gave the Cardinals a 2-1 lead in their four game series.
“When I got to a 3-2 count I knew he had to throw me a strike”, Piscotty said.
“I was just looking for something up in the zone”, Howard said.
The Phillies were certainly impressed.
“For some reason guys hit well in certain ballparks”, Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin said. “He did everything you could ask a pitcher to do”.
Stephen Piscotty drove in two runs and also made an outstanding catch in right field to help preserve the shutout.
Moss unloaded off Jerad Eickhoff (1-4) for a solo homer in the first inning.
“He took that knee to his quad and it was really tightening up”, Matheny said. “Any homer is a good homer”.
Andres Blanco followed with a foul flyball to right and Piscotty ran a long way, then made a hard, headfirst dive onto the dirt for the catch. Left fielder Tyler Goeddel also singled in the inning, but former Cardinal Peter Bourjous lined into a double play to end the inning.
Kevin Siegrist (4-0) fanned the side in the ninth to pick up the win for St. Louis, which improved to 2-4 on its season-long 10-game homestand. Araujo allowed a sacrifice fly and Murray yielded a two-run double with the bases loaded.
Even as they entered Thursday’s finale of the four-game series with the Cardinals, a matinee at Busch Stadium, it didn’t feel quite like they were in a position to lose the series. The Phils may have avoided being shut out prior to Thursday, but they left Busch Stadium having scored two runs or fewer in 12 of their 29 games (which translates to in 41.2 percent of their games).
The only member of the Phillies to reach base was Freddy Galvis in the first, the result of a throwing error by shortstop Ruben Tejada. “That’s baseball right there”. With a two-run lead and two men in scoring position, Mike Matheny went to Matt Holliday as a pinch hitter for Garcia, ending the lefty’s bid for a second complete game this season.
“We think we can win a lot of ballgames, but in order to do that, we need production from everybody, not just our big guns”. Adams and Moss have started 11 games there, while Holliday has started four and Matt Carpenter has started one. Piscotty was ceded second base on defensive indifference as Holliday took the first pitch for a ball. He is listed as day-to-day.
Philly has a quick turnaround Thursday night, as the club will hop a flight to Miami to play the Marlins three times this weekend starting on Friday.
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Five hits were mustered by Philadelphia but three of them came late in the game and weren’t enough to spark a comeback. Nola, who retired the last 10 batters, has given up one run or fewer in four of six starts this season.
