Cards force Game 5 in NLDS

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS

Roy Oswalt seemed all set to close out the Cardinals. He had an early lead, had won big games in St. Louis and had never lost a postseason start.

So much for all that history.

David Freese homered, doubled and drove in four runs as the Cardinals roughed up Oswalt and beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-3 Wednesday, forcing a deciding fifth game in their NL playoff series.

Roy Halladay, who won the opener for Phillies, will face the Cardinals’ ace, Chris Carpenter.

“It might be fitting that it goes down to a fifth game,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson gave up two runs on his first five pitches, then shut down the Phillies over six innings. Jason Motte pitched a perfect ninth for his second save of the series.

Oswalt lamented squandering the early lead.

“It’s good to get some early runs for sure,” he said. “I felt pretty comfortable after that — just two bad pitches.”

The Phillies scored two in the first on a double by Jimmy Rollins, a triple by Chase Utley and a single by Hunter Pence. But the inning fizzled when Pence was thrown out stealing on a close play.

The Cardinals got one back in the bottom of the inning when Lance Berkman’s two-out double scored Skip Schumaker. They took the lead in the fourth when Oswalt walked Berkman, hit Matt Holliday on the right elbow and gave up Freese’s two-run double down the left-field line.

Freese made it 5-2 in the sixth with a two-out homer over the center-field wall that scored Holliday, who had singled.

DIAMONDBACKS 8, brewers 1

PHOENIX

Paul Goldschmidt hit a grand slam and tied a franchise postseason record with five RBIs and fellow rookie Josh Collmenter befuddled Milwaukee batters in Game 3 on Tuesday night.

Goldschmidt gave Arizona a 7-1 lead in the fifth with a two-out, opposite-field homer to right off Shaun Marcum after Miguel Montero had been intentionally walked. Montero drove in two runs with a single and double.