Brewers Advance on Morgan Single in 10th; Carpenter, Furcal Make Cardinals Winners

Players of the Day for Friday, October 7, 2011


National League

Brewers 3 Diamondbacks 2, 10 innings

Morgan: walk-off
single nips D'Backs

Nyjer Morgan's ground single up the middle off closer John Axford brought home pinch-runner Carlos Gomez from second base with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning to advance the Milwaukee Brewers to the NL championship series.

The Brewers were pushed to a game five when the dropped both games at Arizona and the Diamondbacks evened the series at two games apiece, forcing the game five finale at Milwaukee. The home team won every game in the series, though hame five was the only close one, as the average winning margin through the first four games was 4.75 runs.

Milwaukee, winners of the Central Division, host the wild card Cardinals - also from the Central division - at 4:05 pm EDT, Sunday.

Furdal: leadoff triple

Cardinals 1 Phillies 0

Carpenter: 3-Hit
Shutout

Rafael Furcal socked a leadoff triple off Phillies' starter Roy Halladay, and Skip Schumaker's follow-up double quickly turned it into the only run scored in the game as Chris Carpenter delivered a virtuoso mound performance, blanking the Phillies on three hits to allow the Cardinals to advance to the NL championship series against Milwaukee.

Furcal and the rest of the Cardinals were tight in the field behind Carpenter's grinding work from the mound. The lanky St. Louis ace worked over the potent Philly lineup, fanning three without walking a batter, throwing 70 of 110 pitches to send the Phillies home for a winter of regret as the Cardinals take a flight to Milwaukee to carry on in the post-season.

American League

There were no AL games on Friday. The Rangers host the Tigers in game one of the league championship series Saturday at Arlington, Texas at 8:05 pm EDT.