Death Knell for a Dynasty: Halladay Drops 1-0 Decision to the Cardinals

This past 2022 season the Philadelphia Phillies made their first entry into the post-season in 11 long years. When I say long, of course, it is a relative term. I lived through the 25 years between post-season appearances of earlier Phillies teams (1950-1976) and my father lived through an even longer drought during the 35 woebegone years from 1915-1950. This latest season of qualified success, the Phillies just sneaked into the post-season with the final NL Wild Card spot, had me looking back on the last Phillies team to make the playoffs. That was a truly great team, which rode the pitching of the four aces, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt, to a 102-win season. It was also a team that had reached the playoffs for five consecutive years under manager Charlie Manuel, including two World Series appearances and one World Championship.

This great team went into the National League Division Series against the red-hot St. Louis Cardinals (90-72) and proceeded to lose the five-game series, 3-games-to-2. The final game saw the Phillies and Roy Halladay drop an excruciating 1-0 decision to Chris Carpenter and the Cardinals, at Citizens Bank Park before 46,520 stunned and silent Phillies fans. As Ryan Howard grounded out weakly to second base to end the game, he fell to the ground in agony with a ruptured Achilles tendon. That game and that final play became the symbols of the end of the Phillies greatest run of success in their 125-year history. The fall was precipitous. It would be 10 years before the Phillies would even finish above .500 again.

The Division Series began in Philadelphia with a Phillies 11-6 win. After Halladay gave up three runs to the Cards in the first, the Phillies hitters drove former teammate and Cardinals’ starter Kyle Lohse from the mound with a five run sixth inning. Howard hit a three-run homer and Raul Ibanez followed with a two-run blast to put the Phillies ahead for good. The Cardinals took the next game, 5-4, when Lee could not hold the four-run lead he was given. The Phillies got to Cards starter Carpenter for those four runs in the first two innings, but six Cardinal relievers held the Phillies off the rest of the way. An Albert Pujols seventh-inning single drove home the winning run.

Cole Hamels pitched six strong innings for a 3-2 Phillies victory in Game 3 as the series moved to Busch Stadium III. The Phillies Ben Francisco won the game with a pinch-hit, three-run home run in the seventh. The Cardinals battered Oswalt in Game 4 for a 5-3 win. David Freese was the Cardinal hitting star with two hits and four RBIs.

The series returned to Philadelphia for a winner take all Game 5. Halladay would face Carpenter.

The Cardinals took the lead in the top of the first inning, when Rafael Furcal led off the game with a triple and scored when Skip Schumacher doubled. That was it for the scoring as Halladay shut the Cardinals down for the next seven innings. Meanwhile the Phillies hitters could generate nothing against Carpenter, who they had handled easily in Game 1. In this game they could only manage a Shane Victorino double in the second and single in the fourth, and a Chase Utley single in the sixth. The series and the season came down to the bottom of the ninth inning. Carpenter was still on the mound. Utley led off and hit the first pitch for a fly ball out to center field. Hunter Pence grounded out to Daniel Descalso, Freese’s defensive replacement at third base. Howard was the Phillies’ last hope. Despite a home run in the first game, he had had a poor series, going 2-for-18 as he stepped in. He worked Carpenter to 2-2, then swung mightily, started to run, and crumpled to the ground as second baseman Nick Punto fielded the slow grounder and threw him out. What followed was a bizarre scene as the Cardinals rushed out to celebrate on the mound with Carpenter and the Phillies medical personal dashed out to aid the fallen Howard.

The Cardinals stayed hot and went on to win the NL Championship Series over the Milwaukee Brewers, and the World Series in seven games over the Texas Rangers.

Howard was never the same. He played just 71 games in 2012 and averaged just .229 with 19 home runs over his final five seasons with the Phillies. Halladay was never the same either. Suffering from arm miseries, he won just 15 more games in his career as his ERA rose two full runs per game in 2012. Chase Utley was slowed by bad knees, and while he managed two more decent seasons for the Phillies, he was a shadow of his former All-Star self. He was shipped to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2015. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins was solid for the next three years for the Phillies, even winning his third Gold Glove in 2012, but his batting average hovered around .250. Lee struggled in 2012, bounced back well in 2013 and played his final season in 2014, when injuries caught up with him. In mid-2013 manager Charlie Manuel was fired, and the Phillies 2007-2011 dynasty was officially declared dead.

The Phillies got a small measure of revenge on the Cardinals in the 2022 playoffs, downing them in two straight games in St. Louis. Meanwhile, the New York Mets proved once again that 100-win seasons do not necessarily translate into post-season success, as they dropped their Wild Card Series to the San Diego Padres, 2-games-to-1. In the playoffs, it is often the hot team, and not necessarily the best team, that wins.