Phillies' Bastardo encouraged by Game 2 performance

It was hardly a perfect outing for Antonio Bastardo, but at least it was a scoreless one.

The Phillies lefthander, who staggered down the stretch in his first full season, got two outs in the eighth inning in Sunday's Game 2 loss before giving way to Vance Worley.

Bastardo appeared to have Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay struck out on a 1-2 pitch, but third base umpire Gary Cederstrom ruled Jay had held his swing. He eventually worked a walk and was sacrificed to second.

In seven appearances from Sept. 3-25, Bastardo gave up nine earned runs in 3 2/3 innings while issuing seven walks. He was leaking more oil than the BP disaster.

"I was feeling a little bit tired and I lost my mechanics a little bit," said Bastardo, who made a team-high 64 appearances this year.

Bastardo closed the season with a scoreless inning at Atlanta on Sept. 27, meaning that the 12 pitches he threw Sunday were his first in a game in five days – an eternity for a reliever.

"The time off helped a lot," said Bastardo, the only lefty in Charlie Manuel's bullpen. "I've been thinking about what to do to get back to where I was."

Duck!

Vance Worley, who put out Bastardo's fire, described his postseason debut thusly:

"I came in, I slipped, I threw at a guy's head and then I threw a (deep flyball)," he said plainly.

Worley, a terrific starter all season, will pitch out of the bullpen in the playoffs. He got the Phillies out of the eighth inning by getting Allen Craig to fly out to the rightfield warning track. His second-most notable pitch of the at-bat was the 1-0 offering that nearly ended up in the left ear of the Cardinals rightfielder.

"It was supposed to be a fastball in and I wound up slipping," he said. "It was a good, accidental pitch I guess because it set up the breaking ball for me," on which Craig flied out.

Carlos in charge

The most violent play Sunday came when Jon Jay tried unsuccessfully to bowl over Carlos Ruiz on a play at the plate in the fourth inning. With Jay on second, Rafael Furcal singled to left and the throw from Raul Ibanez and Jay arrived at the plate almost simultaneously. Jay delivered an elbow to Ruiz's mug, but the catcher held on to the ball.

"Chooch is the best catcher I've ever played with as far as staying in there and blocking the plate," said Ibanez, a 14-year veteran. "It's not surprising that he stays in there and takes the hit and makes a great play."

Said Jay: "I was hoping that the ball would come out, but it didn't. It worked out in his favor. He did a good job of holding onto the ball right there."

Phil-ups

The Cardinals are going with lefty Jaime Garcia in Game 3, so expect righthanded-hitting John Mayberry Jr. to replace Raul Ibanez as the Phillies leftfielder. Cole Hamels will start for the Phillies. Game starts at 5:07 p.m. Eastern … St. Louis native Ryan Howard tried to shrug off the success he's had in his hometown, but there is no denying the numbers. In 26 games at Busch Stadium, Howard is hitting .368 with nine homers and 35 RBI. Projected over 162 games, that's 56 homers and 218 RBI … The Phillies are now 6-16 all-time in Game 2s and 4-6 under Charlie Manuel.