Philadelphia Phillies vs St. Louis Cardinals Box Score on Oct 08, 2022

ST. LOUIS -- The Phillies are bringing postseason baseball back to the city of Philadelphia for the first time in 11 years.

Led by Bryce Harper and Aaron Nola, the Phillies dispatched the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 Saturday night to sweep their National League wild-card series on the road and advance to the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves.

Citizens Bank Park will see its first playoff action since the Phillies lost to the Cardinals in the 2011 NLDS.

Harper hit a solo home run to prove the only offense Philadelphia would need and Nola (1-0) threw 6 2/3 shutout innings for the victory. Zach Eflin escaped a ninth-inning jam to earn the save.

"We're just excited to get back to Philadelphia," Harper said. "Hopefully we'll be 2-0 or 1-1 getting back there. ... We're just excited to get back and play in front of such great crowd in Philadelphia. I'm excited to see the towels going. I'm excited to see the vibe of the ballpark, the vibe of the city."

Nola allowed just four hits while striking out six batters and walking one, continuing a trend that saw him post a 2.36 ERA in his six September starts.

For the Cardinals, their playoff elimination ended the career of Hall of Fame candidates Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina. Both announced their plans to retire after this season.

"It's tough. Obviously we're disappointed," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. "Our goal was to win the whole thing. Unfortunately we came up short. That clubhouse is disappointed. But we took our best shot."

Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas (0-1) allowed two runs on two hits in 4 1/3 innings. He struck out three and walked one.

Lars Nootbaar led off the bottom of the first with a single and took second on a Brandon Marsh error. Nola left him there by striking out Pujols and Paul Goldschmidt before getting Nolan Arenado to fly out.

Harper's homer leading off the second put the Phillies up 1-0.

Alec Bohm opened the fifth with a double and advanced on Marsh's sacrifice bunt. After Mikolas hit Jean Segura with a pitch, Marmol summoned Jordan Montgomery in relief. Montgomery walked Bryson Stott and allowed Kyle Schwarber's sacrifice fly as the Phillies doubled their lead to 2-0.

J.T. Realmuto drew a leadoff walk in the sixth and raced to third base on Harper's single. Bohm drew an intentional walk with two outs and the Phillies tried to steal a run. Bohm got caught in a rundown and the Cardinals tagged him for the third out before Realmuto could score.

Marsh led off the seventh with a double and took third on a bunt, but Montgomery struck out Stott and Schwarber.

Nootbaar drew a walk off Jose Alvarado with one out in the eighth and Pujols hit a single off Seranthony Dominguez. But Goldschmidt and Arenado struck out to strand the potential tying runs. The two Cardinals stars went 1-for-15 with six strikeouts in the series.

"Those guys carried us for the entire year," Marmol said of Goldschmidt and Arenado. "At the end of the day, baseball is tough. They had a tough stretch there at the end. It's part of the game. Obviously the timing of it wasn't ideal. It wasn't a lack of preparation or competing, I'll tell you that. Those are ultra-competitors giving everything they have."

Two-out singles by Corey Dickerson and Molina in the ninth gave the Cardinals one last gasp, but Tommy Edman popped out to end the game.

"This is the best. This what we play for," Bohm said. "You play 162 games, the season gets long, guys get banged up. But this is what we play for."

--Jeff Gordon, Field Level Media