The Phillies won two of three against St. Louis and returned to Philadelphia with a split on the six-game trip, which started in Cleveland. They also remained three games behind the New York Mets in the National League East, with the Mets coming to town Friday for a four-game series.
"It's tough losing veterans because of their experience," said Victorino, referring to Saturday's news that Lieber could miss the rest of the season because of a ruptured tendon in his right foot. "But the people who have been called up have done the job."
At least they did today.
But it's not a recipe the Phillies prefer to follow in the future. Lefthander Cole Hamels lasted just three innings because of a 1-hour, 36-minute rain delay in the middle of the fourth inning.
But Madson and Brian Sanches, who replaced injured reliever Francisco Rosario on June 17, each threw two scoreless innings to take a 1-1 tie into the eighth inning. The Phillies loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth when manager Charlie Manuel sent Victorino to the plate to pinch-hit for Greg Dobbs.
Cardinals manager Tony La Russa countered and called in lefthander Randy Flores from the bullpen.
Victorino, a switch-hitter, liked that. He entered the afternoon hitting .264 against lefthanders and .273 against righthanders, but he is a natural righthander.
"I definitely feel better from the right side," he said. "I'm not saying I feel that much greater. They probably thought that looking at my numbers I'm not hitting as well righthanded as lefthanded, so they made that decision. I guess it kind of worked out."
Flores threw Victorino a 3-2 breaking ball, which surprised him. But he also had enough time to foul it off to keep the at-bat alive. Flores followed with a fastball, and Victorino ripped a double to left-center field to clear the bases and hand the Phillies a 4-1 lead.
The Phils added an insurance run in the ninth.
