Aaron Altherr got his first lucky break in a while.

Left fielder Marcell Ozuna dived for and missed Altherr’s two-run double with two outs in the 10th inning Leonard Fournette Jersey Black , allowing the Philadelphia Phillies to rally for a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday night.

Altherr had been hitless in his last 12 at-bats and 1 for 20 before the hit.

”The way things have been going, I thought he was going to catch it,” Altherr said. ”Thankfully he dove for it and it got by.”

Tommy Pham hit a solo homer in the top of the 10th, one inning after a wild pitch on a strikeout kept the game going. But the Phillies rallied.

Rhys Hoskins hit a bloop single to start the bottom of the 10th off Matt Bowman (0-2). Odubel Herrera dived headfirst into first to seemingly beat out an infield single, but the play was overturned by a video review. After Carlos Santana was intentionally walked, Bowman struck out Jesmuel Valentin.

Altherr then hit a sinking liner that appeared to skip off Ozuna’s glove before bouncing to the wall.

”It was so nice to see a ball bounce in his direction,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said of Altherr.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny tried to explain the unusual strategy to put the winning run on base.

”Wanted to avoid their best hitter,” he said of Santana, who is batting .226.

On a day former closer Hector Neris was sent to the minors, Kapler’s aggressive use of the bullpen nearly cost him. Seranthony Dominguez – the team’s best reliever – wasn’t available after pitching 2 1/3 innings in the previous two games. So Kapler turned to Victor Arano and Adam Morgan in the ninth to protect a 4-2 lead. Neither pitcher has ever earned a save.

Yadier Molina hit a one-out single in the ninth off Arano, and Jedd Gyorko followed with a double. Arano struck out Harrison Bader and fanned Yairo Munoz, but Munoz reached when catcher Andrew Knapp failed to block the wild pitch and a run scored.

”I have to make that play. I have to block it,” Knapp said.

Morgan came in and allowed a tying single to Kolten Wong.

Pham hit a deep drive off Jake Thompson (1-1) for his 11th homer.

Matt Carpenter and Molina also hit solo homers for St. Louis. Molina caught his 1,757th game with the Cardinals, passing the Cubs’ Gabby Hartnett for the most games caught with one team.

Herrera hit a three-run homer for Philadelphia.

The Phillies’ bullpen wasted a strong start from Nick Pivetta. He had a career-high 13 strikeouts, allowing two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings in his best outing since May 21. Pivetta lost his previous four starts, posting a 7.11 ERA in those games.

Pivetta left after Carpenter hit a double high off the fence in right to put runners at second and third. Right fielder Nick Williams exited with a bloody face after the ball hit him on the carom.

Edubray Ramos entered and struck out Pham and Jose Martinez swinging at sliders.

The Phillies have won six of eight games while the Cardinals have lost six of eight.

Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas gave up four runs and six hits in five innings.

EXTRA WORK

The Phillies are 5-1 in extra innings while the Cardinals are 5-6.

ROSTER MOVE

Neris was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley Womens Terrell Suggs Jersey , and lefty Austin Davis was recalled. Neris had a 6.00 ERA in 30 appearances, going 1-3 with 10 saves in 13 chances.

TRAINER’S ROOM

CARDINALS: 1B Martinez returned to the lineup after missing three games on paternity leave. 1B Luke Voit was optioned to Triple-A Memphis.

PHILLIES: RHP Jerad Eickhoff (right hand) is set to throw a bullpen session Tuesday. … Righty reliever Pat Neshek is scheduled to throw live batting practice Wednesday in the minors.

UP NEXT

RHP Luke Weaver (3-6, 4.52 ERA) starts for the Cardinals and RHP Vince Velasquez (5-7, 4.74) goes for the Phillies on Tuesday night. Weaver has lost both of his career starts vs. Philadelphia. Velasquez is 1-1 vs. St. Louis, including a victory earlier this season.

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Not being in the limelight has never bothered Kyle Van Noy.

He didn’t start a NFL game until his third season when he was with the Detroit Lions, and even then was thought of as a role player.

So now being considered one of the leaders on a Patriots defense that is on the cusp of making a return trip to the Super Bowl seems somewhat out of place for the fourth-year linebacker as he heads into Sunday’s AFC championship game against Jacksonville.

”I’ve been in so many situations since I’ve been here,” Van Noy said of the increased role he’s had in New England.

”I mean going deep in the playoffs last year and then playing all of the games this year. … Each and every game there’s different situations, different scenarios that come up. So I would say that my awareness has gone up a lot since I’ve been here.”

The same could be said about his value.

When linebacker Dont’a Hightower went down with a season-ending torn pectoral muscle in the Patriots’ win over the Falcons in Week 7, it left a void in the side of a defense that entered 2017 young and inexperienced up front.

New England had already given up 30 or more points three times to that point and was ranked 23rd in the NFL in scoring defense, allowing 23.7 points per game.

Van Noy began the season starting at outside linebacker alongside Elandon Roberts in the middle and Hightower at the other outside spot.

But when Hightower went down, the coaching staff asked Van Noy to handle multiple roles, playing both on the edge and middle of the field at times.

Safety and defensive captain Devin McCourty said that the 26-year-old showed glimpses of that versatility even last season.

It’s why it wasn’t strange for him to see Van Noy tackle the responsibility of receiving the defensive play call from the sideline, another role that he’s inherited with Hightower out.

He flourished in them all, and over the final nine weeks of the season New England got stingier on defense.

By the end of the season it was allowing just 18.5 points per game – the fifth-best mark in the league.

Van Noy missed three of the final four games with a calf injury, but still finished the regular season third on the team with 73 tackles and second with 5+ sacks. Van Noy’s sack total was just a half-sack short of Hightower’s career-high of six in 2014.

”It helps our defense out a lot, and he’s one of a lot of guys on our defense that have been able to play different positions that allow us to do different things defensively,” McCourty said. ”He’s been a leader Youth Luke Kuechly Jersey , he’s run the huddle kind of since he’s been in there.”

Coach Bill Belichick said continuity and execution has improved all over the defense, with lots of contributions from Van Noy and others such as Trey Flowers, Marquis Flowers, Adam Butler, Deatrich Wise Jr. and Ricky Jean Francois.

”Some of the guys that are playing now weren’t playing. If we had had this conversation in the middle of the season, you wouldn’t be asking about them,” Belichick said.

”They’ve stepped into different roles and they’ve worked together more, gotten a better feel for each other, execution’s better, so it’s good.”

Van Noy said any success he’s had is simply a product of his environment.

”There are a lot of superstar defensive players that aren’t even talked about,” he said. ”When I was with the Detroit Lions there was a guy named DeAndre Levy who never made a Pro Bowl, but who everybody knew, if you played football, who he was. There are situations like that all the time. And there’s teams that have really good defenses that aren’t talked about. We’re one of them.”

NOTES: The Patriots placed defensive back and special teamer Jonathan Jones on injured reserve. They also announced the signing of receiver Bernard Reedy. Reedy was a member of the Patriots’ practice squad.

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