Big swings by a slumping hitter, clutch innings by a journeyman pitcher. Suddenly, the St. Louis Cardinals are looking very dangerous.

As for the Philadelphia Phillies? Things have turned downright squirrelly.

David Freese, shut down by Phillies aces the first three games, became a hometown star Wednesday night. He homered, doubled and drove in four runs as the Cardinals defeated nemesis Roy Oswalt and forced a deciding fifth game in their NL playoff series by beating the favored Phillies 5-3.

"This is what you worked for," said Freese, a local prep star who came to the Cardinals in a trade for Jim Edmonds after the 2007 season. "Just to do this in front of the fans of St. Louis and a bunch of friends and family, it's amazing."

Center fielder Jon Jay made a sliding catch on Placido Polanco's soft fly for the final out, and was already pointing his index finger before he got to his feet.

"We're not looking at this like we're just happy to be here and it's David and Goliath," Cardinals slugger Lance Berkman said.

Now it's back to Philadelphia for Game 5 on Friday night. Roy Halladay, who won the opener for the Phillies, will face St. Louis ace Chris Carpenter - they played together in Toronto for five years.

"They're good friends and old teammates, and Carp was really chomping at the bit for this opportunity to pitch against Roy on full rest in a huge Game 5," Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday said. "It should be quite a battle and then it'll be fun to watch two great competitors go head to head and two great teams get after it."

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel agreed.

“Might be fitting that it goes down to the fifth game,” he said. “It’s up to us to go get it. It’s sitting right there for us. We’ve got our ace going, and we’re at home, and so everything is sitting right there.”

The 102-win Phillies were picked by many to win it all. But first they must dispose of the wild-card Cardinals, who clinched a playoff spot on the last day of the season and have gotten the best of two members of the Phils’ star-studded rotation.

An omen, maybe: Right after Oswalt threw a pitch in the fifth, a squirrel darted across the plate.

Oswalt argued, unsuccessfully, that the creature’s dash had distracted him on a pitch called a ball.

“I didn’t want to stop in the middle of my motion, so I threw it,” Oswalt said. “I was wondering what size of animal it needed to be for it not to be a pitch.”

Manuel argued, to no avail.

“Of course, being from the South and being a squirrel hunter, if I had a gun there, might have did something,” Manuel said. “I’m a pretty good shot.”

Albert Pujols was hitless in four at-bats in what could have been his final home game with the Cardinals. He received thunderous cheers every trip to the plate from a standing room crowd of 47,071, second-largest at 6-year-old Busch Stadium.

Pujols made his presence known on defense, catching Chase Utley going for an extra base in the sixth. Utley drew a leadoff walk and kept running on Hunter Pence’s grounder to short, but Pujols alertly jumped off first base to catch the throw and made a sharp relay to third for the out.

Diamondbacks 10, Brewers 6: At Phoenix, Ryan Roberts hit a grand slam, Chris Young had the first two-homer game in Arizona’s postseason history and the Diamondbacks beat Milwaukee to force Game 5 in the NL division series.

A day after rolling over the Brewers 8-1, the Diamondbacks struck quickly and often in Game 4, scoring five runs in the first inning off Randy Wolf.

The Diamondbacks became the second team — with the 1977 Dodgers — to hit grand slams in consecutive playoff games.

Arizona evened the series at 2-all and sent it back to Milwaukee for the decisive game Friday. It will be a rematch of Game 1 between 21-game winner Ian Kennedy of the Diamondbacks and fellow right-hander Yovani Gallardo.

Written off by many after being outscored 13-5 in the first two games, baseball’s best rally team — 48 comeback wins during the regular season — has put itself in position to become just the eighth team overall to win a best-of-five series after trailing 0-2.

Young had three RBIs and Aaron Hill hit a solo homer for Arizona’s first four-homer game in the postseason. Pinch hitter Collin Cowgill added a two-run single and the bullpen held on after a less-than-crisp outing by starter Joe Saunders to keep Milwaukee from winning a postseason series for the first time since reaching the 1982 World Series.

Milwaukee hosts Game 5 on Friday.