Chris Carpenter nails it down for Cardinals

Reporting from Philadelphia

An average Clydesdale lives into his late teens, early 20s. At the rate his possible farewell tour is going, Albert Pujols could wind up in a Cardinals uniform even longer.

For the third time in 10 days, the Cardinals played a game that could have been the last of their season and the final one in Pujols’ Hall of Fame tenure. Flinch and they go home, but instead they rode Chris Carpenter all the way into the National League Championship Series.

Carpenter beat Roy Halladay in a heavyweight fight that will be remembered as one of the best first-round games ever. He took a 1-0 lead to the mound with him to start his shift, thanks to a leadoff triple by Rafael Furcal and run-scoring double by Skip Schumaker, and the scoreboard for Game 5 never changed.

Carpenter shut down the Phillies’ homegrown, high-ticket hitting stars for a 1-0 victory that stunned 46,530 at Citizens Bank Park.

“I think he’ll remember this night forever,” Manager Tony La Russa said after the Cardinals won Game 5. “So will Cardinal fans.”

It was the second season in a row Charlie Manuel’s team couldn’t hit when it mattered most, as the team that bowed out in the division series had been similarly snuffed by San Francisco’s power pitchers in the 2010 NLCS.

“I felt very empty,” said Manuel, whose Phillies won a majors-best 102 games. “I don’t really know what to say.”

Thanks to the Cardinals, who had trailed in the wild-card race by 101/2 games on Aug., 25, the Milwaukee Brewers won’t have to get on a plane Saturday. They play host to St. Louis in Game 1 of the NLCS Sunday in Miller Park.

Carpenter, who had thrown a two-hit shutout at Houston to clinch the wild-card spot, held Philadelphia to three hits.

The last pitch of the game spoke of the Phillies’ frustrations.

With two out and, nobody on in the ninth, Ryan Howard grounded to second. He collapsed a few steps down the line, and would have to be helped off the field as the Cardinals mobbed Carpenter in the infield.

“The magnitude of the game has been the same for the last month and a half for us, for me,” Carpenter said. “We’ve been dealing [with an urgency to win] the whole time. The looseness of our ballclub helps us go out and compete the way we’re competing.”

Halladay was almost as good as Carpenter, his former Toronto teammate. He worked eight innings, holding St. Louis to six hits, and might have held up his share of a scoreless game if not for a missed cutoff man on a leadoff drive into the right-field gap by Furcal.

Manuel said that the Phillies had a shot to cut down Furcal at third had Shane Victorino hit the cutoff man, and the game’s only run came when Schumaker followed the triple with his double down the right-field line.

progers@tribune.com