As Cold As Ice

With Holliday back in the lineup, Freese's
bat might continue to stay hot.

With the St. Louis Cardinals facing elimination Wednesday, it was the bat of young third baseman David Freese that has the red birds on a plane back to Philadelphia for a decisive Game 5 Friday night. The Phillies' offense jumped on right-hander Edwin Jackson early, scoring two runs on his first five pitches with three consecutive hits.

Jackson held his composure and was able to escape the inning without any further damage.

Lance Berkman, who carried the Cardinal offense most of the season with the rare inconsistency of superstar Albert Pujols, responded with a two-out RBI double in the home half of the inning off former and long-time teammate Roy Oswalt.

The rest of the Cards offense belonged to the 28-year-old Freese. After Berkman walked to open the fourth and slugger Matt Holliday was hit by an inside fastball, Oswalt got Yadier Molina to line out to right field for the first out of the inning. Freese promptly lined a bullet into the left field corner, scoring Berkman and Holliday, giving St. Louis their first lead of the game, 3-2.

In the sixth, Freese hit a mammoth two-run home run to straight away center field for his third and fourth RBIs of the game, almost ensuring St. Louis a trip back to the "City of Brotherly Love".

With those two extra-base hits and four RBIs, Freese joined Lou Brock (Game 4 '68 World Series) and Willie McGee (Game 3 '82 World Series) as the only other Cardinal player to accomplish that feat in a postseason game. Not even the iconic Pujols has had a game like that in the one of his playoff runs.

On the mound, Jackson would not return for the top of the seventh after throwing only 77 pitches. The 28-year-old tossed six quality innings allowing only the two runs in the first inning and striking out four Phillie hitters, giving exactly what manager Tony La Russa needed.

La Russa called on his bullpen once again, using five different hurlers over three brilliant innings of relief to seal a 5-3 victory.

Closer Jason Motte, who is a converted minor league catcher and only 12 career saves under his belt, came on to get the games toughest three outs, but posted a 1-2-3 ninth with the help of his young center fielder.

Game 4 hero John Jay made a sliding catch in shallow right center field for the final out and almost simultaneously throwing his arm in the air in excitement with his finger held high as to say we're No. 1.

As for the Fightin' Phils, Oswalt found himself in a familiar place almost six years ago. The righty started the series-clinching Game 6 of the 2005 NLCS at the old Busch Stadium, eventually sending the Houston Astros to their first World Series appearance in franchise history.

It seems like ages ago Carpenter
was a member of the Blue Jays.

Oswalt was a much different pitcher then and one not riddled by back problems. The loss marked the first of the 11-year veteran's postseason career as a starter. Oswalt had been 5-0 in ten previous postseason starts. His first loss came as a reliever in last year's NLCS against the San Francisco Giants.

With the series tied at two games apiece both squads will be sending their ace to the mound with eight months of hard work on the line. Former teammates and still very good friends Chris Carpenter, who will be on full rest after starting Game 2 on three days rest for the first time in his career, and Roy Halladay will have the attention of the baseball world Friday night at Citizen Bank Ballpark.

We wouldn't have it any other way.