The Phillies walked into St. Louis and swept the Cardinals in the Wild Card Series, advancing to the NLDS with their first playoff series win since 2010.
How did they do it? Completely shutting down St. Louis’ two MVP candidates certainly played a major part.
With a big boost from Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola, the Philly pitching staff silenced Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado in the two-game sweep, holding the two to a combined 1-for-15 with no extra-base hits and six strikeouts during the short series.
In Saturday’s game two, with their season on the line, Goldschmidt and Arenado went 0-for-8 with five strikeouts.
The two big bats had a chance to play the hero in the bottom of the eighth inning with two on, but both were struck out by Seranthony Dominguez to send the game to the ninth with the Phils still leading 2-0.
It was the best chance the Cardinals would have, and the lack of production from their two stars doomed their season.