In a game that saw several lead changes and its share of bizarre plays, the St. Louis Cardinals evened the series with the Philadelphia Phillies with a 6-5 victory in twelve innings.

Jhonny Peralta showed some firepower early to put the Cardinals on the board, leading off the second with his eighteenth home run on the season. Peralta, who is batting .263, already possesses the club record for home runs by a shortstop in a season. 

All was well for the visiting Cardinals until the Phillies manufactured a run in the bottom of the fourth, stringing together a pair of singles from Marlon Byrd and Domonic Brown to set up Carlos Ruiz with an opportunity which the David, Panama, native seized with an RBI double that briefly pushed Philadelphia to the top, 2-1.

In the subsequent frame, the Cardinals pieced together their counterattack, which originated from starting pitcher Shelby Miller's leadoff single. Two batters later, he was knocked in with Matt Holliday's groundout, effectively tying the contest.

St. Louis surged ahead with a huge top of the sixth. A.J. Pierzynski led off the inning with a double, and the catcher scored after the ball was thrown away as went into third following Oscar Taveras' hit. After Jon Jay was walked, the Cardinals became the beneficiary of another throwing error, as Phillies third baseman Cody Asche committed one after fielding Shelby Miller's bunt. The error allowed Taveras and Jay to score, bringing the Cardinals' lead to 5-2.

Ryan Howard lessened the Phillies' burden with a solo shot to lead off the bottom of the sixth.

The Phillies evened the affair in the eighth, as Randy Choate allowed the bases to be loaded with no outs, stemming from Jimmy Rollins' and Chase Utley's singles, and the plunking of Ryan Howard. 

Pat Neshek once again had to come in and survey the damage. His first batter faced, Marlon Byrd, hit a two-RBI single to tie the game. Neshek ended up escaping the inning with the score tied, but not before a close call at home plate, where Freddy Galvis was ultimately tagged out by Pierzynski. 

The Cardinals were not without their chances in the top of the ninth. Kolten Wong led off the frame with a liner to center field, which was deflected off of Ben Revere's foot, knocking it over the fence to award Wong a ground rule double. Mike Matheny challenged the call, hoping that Wong would at least be permitted to advance to third, but to no avail.

Matt Holliday was hit by a pitch, and he and Wong ended up stealing an extra base after two strikeouts. The Redbirds' attempts were in vain, however, as their chance of taking a late lead in the ballgame were dashed with A.J. Pierzynski's groundout.

Sam Freeman pitched a rather efficient ninth for the Cardinals, bringing our contest to extra innings.

The Cardinals failed to capitalize on opportunities in both the tenth and eleventh innings, with the latter seeing A.J. Pierzynski ground into a double play with the bases loaded.

Matt Carpenter's sacrifice fly in the twelfth proved to be St. Louis' saving grace, as it scored Daniel Descalso, who had reached on a walk, and subsequently advanced on a sacrifice bunt and a Peter Bourjous single.

Shelby Miller pitched six innings for the Cardinals, giving five hits and three runs, while also recording three strikeouts and issuing a pair of walks. The Redbirds used five relievers in total, including Seth Maness (5-2) who picked up the win, and Trevor Rosenthal, who earned his thirty-eighth save of the season.

Ken Giles (2-1) was tagged with the loss.

Tomorrow afternoon, the series will be decided as Justin Masterson (2-1) takes on the Phillies' Jerome Williams (1-0).