Phillies upset Cardinals to reach first NLDS since 2011

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The city of St. is located in the northeastern part of the United States The PhiladelphiaPhillies completed a sweep of the St. LouisCardinals with a 2-0 victory.

Philadelphia's stars showed up in Game 2, with Nola shutting down the Cubs for 6 1/3 frames,Harper hitting a home run in the second, and Schwarber providing an insurance run with a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

There is a good team over there. "We were able to do that because we had a chance to come in here and win games." It's a great group of guys and we're excited to keep going.

The win vaults Philadelphia into the NL Division Series for the first time since 2011.

There was a chance for St. Louis to take the lead with two outs in the ninth. Tommy Edman did not make it to third. Pujols ended with two singles.

Nola left with two outs in the seventh after striking out six and walking one. The runner on first was stranded by Jose Alvarado's popup. In the eighth, Seranthony Dominguez struck out Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado to escape a two-on-one situation.

The win avenges the loss to the Cards in the NLDS, which was highlighted by an epic pitchers' duel between Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay.

The president of baseball operations called that a "fork in the road" before the start of the series. Tony La Russa announced his retirement and Albert Pujols left to join the LA Angels after the Cards won the World Series. The team has not made the playoffs in 10 years. A rebuild that didn't bear fruit as quickly as the fan base hoped was caused by the fact that their dynamic core of Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard aged out.

Dave Dombrowski took over as the head of baseball operations a year later, but the team faded down the stretch and missed out on the playoffs. Heading into 2022, the stakes were raised even further when the Phillies spent $179 million on Nick Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, putting them on track to exceed baseball's luxury tax threshold.

They were already 12 1/2 games back of the NL East when they started the season with a 22-29 record. The team won 14 of their next 16 games under Thomson's calm demeanor. They were 15 games above.500 at the end of August and in a good position in the Wild Card race. They lost 10 of their last 14 in September, putting them at risk of losing a spot in the playoffs, but they won three of their first four in October to finally win.

The Phils overcame a managerial change, major struggles from Castellanos, a long absence from the reigning NL Most Valuable Player,Harper, and the loss of their ace,Zack. Schwarber led the league in home runs and J.T. Realmuto continued to perform like the game's best catcher.

"It was a lot of challenges thrown at us over the course of the year, where I don't know that I've ever been part of a team or something like that that has gone that many ways against us." The main thing that you can be proud of is that this group came together closer, because that was the only way that we were going to be able to stay in the hunt.

The sold-out Busch Stadium crowd was stunned by the come-from-behind victory in the first game of the series. Nola was brilliant in the second game of the series, giving up a single to Nootbaar to lead off the game before blowing through the rest of the lineup.

The NL East champion Braves will be Philadelphia's first opponent in the division series.

The retirements of Pujols and Molina are a result of the elimination of the Cards. In the second half of the season, Pujols put together a.323/.388/.715 slash line and reached the 700 home run mark. The record for most starts as batterymates was set by Adam and Molina.

The Cards won their fifth NL Central title in 10 years under first year manager Oliver Marmol. They were strengthened by Pujols' second half, along with a strong defense, a dominant closer and a pitch-to-contact starting rotation that was well-suited for a large stadium. It was a magical year for the St. Louis Cards. It ended abruptly under the new format of the playoffs.

The AP contributed to the story.