“Well, it’s not good to be down 0-1, but when you’re the visiting team the goal is to try to win one of the two games here and then go back home and see what happens,’’ Berkman said.
Lohse tossed 7 1-3 strong innings in a 4-3 win over Halladay at Philadelphia on Sept. 19, helping the Cardinals inch closer to a postseason berth they eventually secured on the last day of the regular season.
The righty retired the first 10 batters he faced in this one, but it was downhill from there.
“Lohse pitched pretty well,’’ Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols said. “You take that inning out of the way… he makes Howard have a great at-bat, and they just battled and put something together. I think Lohse, if you look at it, made two mistakes all day and they took advantage of it.’’
It’s not the first time Lohse has failed in the postseason in this ballpark. Pitching for the Phillies in the 2007 NLDS, Lohse allowed a grand slam to Colorado’s Kaz Matsui in the fourth inning of a 10-5 loss. The Phillies were swept by the Rockies.
“What it boiled it down to, I missed with two changeups all night and both ended up with homers,’’ Lohse said.
Halladay settled in nicely after Berkman’s homer, and retired the last 21 batters he faced as the NL East champions began their all-or-nothing postseason run with a comeback win.
Halladay gave up three runs and three hits, striking out eight in eight innings.
Lohse allowed six runs — five earned — and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings.
Last year, in his first career playoff start, Halladay threw the second no-hitter in postseason history in Philadelphia’s 4-0 victory over Cincinnati.
His bid for an encore in the first round didn’t last one batter, and Berkman hit the first three-run homer off Halladay in three years to put the wild-card Cardinals up 3-0 in the first.
But the offense bailed out Doc.
Lohse didn’t allow a runner until Chase Utley hit a double off the right-field fence in the fourth. The righty, who was 14-8 this season, was cruising until the sixth.
