The Biggest Wild Card Surprise

Great pitching stops great hitting.  You heard that again and again.  This past weekend, that was the Phillies recipe for sweeping the NL Central champion Cardinals in their Wild Card series, thanks to their co-aces.  Zack Wheeler (above) fired 6-2/3 scoreless innings Fridayt.  Then Aaron Nola (below) sealed the deal with seven shutout frames, and just a hit and a walk Saturday night.

Let's not forget Saturday night's historic 9th inning rally where the Phils erased a 2-0 St. Louis lead, stunning and silencing the Busch Stadium crowd.

One thing more, by taking the series, the Phillies in a sense reversed the painful end of their previous five-year playoff run.  They had lost to the Cardinals in a winner-take-all game five in the 2011 NLDS and hadn't been back to the dance since.  Now, against big odds, they beat the same foe and advance to face the defending World Champion Braves.

The sixth-seed knocks off the three -- with all three wins on the road.  A heck of a way for the revised post-season plan to get rolling.



 

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