It was just a week ago that Odubel Herrera showed signs of breaking out of a lengthy slump with a two-hit game in a win over the Colorado Rockies.
"Bet on me," said Herrera, showing confidence that he was about to heat up.
Herrera was right. He's hot again. He had three hits Wednesday afternoon, including the big one, a tie-breaking, solo homer in the bottom of the seventh that lifted the Phillies to a tense 4-3 victory and their first series win over the St. Louis Cardinals since 2014. The Phillies were able to win the series despite blowing leads in all three games.
The Phillies' beleaguered bullpen had a successful day with Austin Davis, Edubray Ramos, Victor Arano and Adam Morgan combining on three scoreless innings. Ramos got five important outs. Morgan came on for the final two outs of the game after Arano gave up a one-out double.
Morgan picked up his first career save. He is the seventh different Phillie to notch a save this season.
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Herrera has multiple hits in five of the last seven games and has 13 hits overall in that span. Five of the hits are homers in the last six games.
Herrera's homer came against Cardinals reliever Sam Tuivailala. Starter Michael Wacha left the game in the fourth inning with an oblique injury.
Three of the Phillies' four runs came on homers. Cesar Hernandez clubbed a two-run shot against Wacha with two outs in the fourth to give the Phils a 3-1 lead.
Jake Arrieta turned in a solid start, allowing three runs over six innings. Arrieta, however, could not have been happy with the way things ended for him. He took a 3-1 lead to the mound in the sixth inning and got a pair of quick outs before allowing a single to Marcell Ozuna to extend the frame. Yadier Molina then capitalized with a game-tying, two-run homer on a full-count slider. Arrieta gave up just four hits and two of them were homers by Molina.
Notes
J.P. Crawford was placed on the disabled list with a broken hand and Mitch Walding was recalled from Triple A (see story).
The Phillies are off Thursday. They open a three-game series at Washington Friday night. Zach Eflin (4-2, 3.43) gets the ball for the Phillies. The Nats have not yet announced their starter for that game.
