Doc, Phils' offense too much for Cards

PHILADELPHIA -- Roy Halladay was human for about 20 minutes Saturday in Game 1 of this National League Division Series. Lance Berkman hit a three-run homer in the first inning, the Cardinals swapped high-fives and Citizens Bank Park went quiet.

Then it was over.

From that point, Halladay dominated St. Louis in his more customary machine-like fashion, allowing one hit in the next seven innings. The Phillies rallied for five runs in the sixth, including home runs by Ryan Howard and Raul Ibañez, to help lock down an 11-6 victory over the Cardinals.

"He was kind of like a Rocky movie," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of Halladay. "He got mad after he gave up the homer."

The Cardinals wound up as his Apollo Creed or Clubber Lang. Halladay retired 21 straight after Skip Schumaker's leadoff single in the second inning, and Rafael Furcal's flyout to end the eighth was the only other ball to reach the outfield. As Manuel suggested, Halladay certainly pitched as though Berkman's homer ticked him off.

"Yeah, I was upset," Halladay said. "But the biggest thing, especially early in the game, you try to think about is I can't get it back. I can't go out and pitch and start subtracting runs. You have your moment of frustration and you've got to move on. You can't dwell on it and you can't do anything to get it back."

The Phillies made Berkman's homer a moot point in the sixth inning when Kyle Lohse turned back into, well, Kyle Lohse. After retiring the first 10 batters and taking a 3-1 lead into the sixth, Lohse tried to slip a 78-mph changeup past Howard, who pulled a three-run homer into the rightfield seats.

Those three RBIs were the first in the postseason for Howard since Game 6 of the 2009 World Series against the Yankees and ended a nine-game playoff drought.

"You can't bring what happened last year into this year," Howard said. "For me, it was a fresh start."

Howard's timing could not have been better. Lohse soon found himself in trouble again after Shane Victorino's single brought up Ibañez. Leaving Lohse in to face Howard was one thing. But when Cardinals manager Tony La Russa stuck with him to face a second lefthanded slugger, he was tempting fate, and Ibañez took him over the rightfield wall for a two-run shot that put the Phillies ahead 6-3.

"At that point, he pitched Ibañez tough," La Russa said, "so I thought it was too early to get him."

With Halladay back in gear, that was plenty, but the Phillies added some insurance in the seventh with Howard's sacrifice fly and RBI singles by Victorino and Ibañez. Hunter Pence had a two-run single in the eighth.

When Halladay is on the mound, expectations are outlandishly high at Citizens Bank Park, and Game 1 was no different. Halladay was 20-8 with a 2.33 ERA in 33 career starts there, and a year ago, he opened the playoffs with a no-hitter.