Inside the Game: Oswalt's move from fastballs to change-ups proved costly

ST. LOUIS - For one inning Wednesday night, Roy Oswalt and catcher Carlos Ruiz fell in love with the pitcher's soft stuff, and it proved fatal for the Phillies.

So now, after the St. Louis Cardinals staved off elimination with a 5-3 victory in Game 4 at Busch Stadium, the teams will play a do-or-die Game 5 on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.

The winner advances to the National League Championship Series.

Oswalt, pitching in the park where he thought his career might be in jeopardy because of a back injury earlier this season, had good velocity in Game 4 and probably would not have allowed a run through the first three innings if not for an unfortunate slip by centerfielder Shane Victorino in the bottom of the first.

All you needed to see to know that Oswalt's fastball had life was his first battle of the night with the Cardinals' Albert Pujols. Oswalt threw the St. Louis slugger six pitches, and five of them were fastballs, including the final pitch, which induced a harmless pop-up. He won another battle with Pujols by striking out the slugger on a change-up after setting him up with fastballs, in the third inning.

But when his good friend and former Houston teammate Lance Berkman came to the plate in the fourth, Oswalt and Ruiz went soft.

"He hit a fastball off the wall [in the first inning], so I thought I'd throw him something else," Oswalt said. "He's a dead-red fastball hitter. If you can get it in on him, usually you can get him, but if it leaks back over the plate he's going to hit it. I tried to stay soft with him."

After missing with a first-pitch sinker, Oswalt threw four straight change-ups to Berkman. He thought the third pitch was a strike, and so did Berkman, but home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez did not give it to him.

"I knew he knew that pitch was a strike because he kind of smiled at me," Oswalt said. "Then I tried to get a 3-1 change-up in, and I didn't."

This leadoff walk, like so many others, proved costly.

Oswalt started the next hitter, Matt Holliday, with a change-up and hit the Cardinals leftfielder.

After Yadier Molina hit a change-up hard to right field that was caught by Hunter Pence, Oswalt stayed with the soft stuff, trying to throw a first-pitch curveball by David Freese.

The Cardinals third baseman delivered a two-run double down the left-field line, giving St. Louis a 3-2 lead.

The curveball to Freese was the pitch Oswalt regretted most.

"I thought that was my worst pitch," Oswalt said. "It was probably a bad pitch selection on that at-bat."

Chase Utley has made more than his share of smart plays during his tenure in Philadelphia with the most memorable being in Game 5 of the 2008 World Series.

The Phillies second baseman tried to make another smart play Wednesday night, but was outsmarted by the equally baseball savvy Pujols.

After drawing a leadoff walk from Edwin Jackson in the sixth, Utley ran on a 3-2 pitch that Pence grounded to shortstop Rafael Furcal. The only play was to first base and as Furcal hurried to get Pence, Utley broke for third base.

Pujols immediately stepped off first base to shorten Furcal's throw and easily gunned down Utley at third base for the first out of the inning.

"His instincts are second to none in this game," Freese said. "He threw me a bullet to third base, and I knew the way Utley plays . . . he was going to come in hard, and I was just trying to catch the ball and hang on to it."

Manuel said he was fine with Utley's decision.

"I think he was very aggressive," the manager said. "He was trying to make something happen. If he would have stayed, we probably would have had a guy on second with one out, and we ended up with a guy on first with one out."

Jackson retired the next two batters to end the inning, and the Cardinals tacked on two runs on a two-run homer by Freese in the bottom of the sixth.

Victorino is sure to make ESPN's Not Top Ten plays this week after his first-inning flub led to the Cardinals' first run.

After Oswalt won a battle with Pujols to get the second out of the inning with Schumaker at first base, Berkman lined a pitch into right-center field.

It was a sure double, but Victorino quickly got to the ball and played it nicely off the wall. He got there so quickly, in fact, it did not appear as if Schumaker was going to be able to score. That all changed, however, when Victorino slipped and threw the ball against the center-field wall.

Schumaker scored, and Berkman reached third. Victorino was charged with the odd error.

Jackson's first career postseason start was only five pitches old, and he already trailed by 2-0 after an RBI triple from Utley and an RBI single by Pence.

The Phillies had a chance to pile on more, but a 3-2 pitch to Ryan Howard that they thought should have resulted in runners at first and second with nobody out instead turned into a double play. Howard looked at the pitch and clearly thought it was outside. Home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez called it a strike.

Pence, running on the 3-2 pitch, appeared to slide safely into second base, but he was called out by umpire Chad Fairchild. The Phillies only advanced two runners to second base and did not score over the next five innings.

Unlike Game 3, the shadows were not an issue in Game 4, which started one hour later. But the sun played a role in the Phillies' first hit of the game. Centerfielder John Jay lost a fly ball off Jimmy Rollins' bat in the sun and it landed over his head for a ground-rule double.