Any concerns about what was happening in the game Monday vanished as soon as Rick Ankiel crashed into the center-field wall and his teammates raced to where he lay motionless.

Outfielder Chris Duncan was the first to reach Ankiel after the center fielder's eighth-inning catch sent him headlong into the padded wall at Busch Stadium. The force of Ankiel's forehead- and cheek-first ramming into the wall was enough to bend the brim of his cap into a V-shape. Duncan said Ankiel was conscious when he got there and able to reply to his first question.

"I'm all right," Ankiel said, as Duncan recalled. "I'm just not going to move."

Ankiel was strapped to a backboard and taken to Missouri Baptist Hospital, where he underwent a battery of exams. The team announced late Monday night that X-rays and a CT scan taken of Ankiel's head, neck and back found no fractures and that the outfielder would be hospitalized overnight for observation.

Team officials, including general manager John Mozeliak, confirmed that Ankiel was responsive before leaving the field and able to move his arms and legs when asked by trainers and the team physician.

The center fielder gave a brief thumbs up to the crowd as he was carted off the field.

"He had pretty good whiplash and some puffiness in his cheek," manager Tony La Russa said. "He hit real hard. His hat shows it."

At the time of Ankiel's injury, the Cardinals already trailed by the final score of 6-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies. The defending World Series champions pounced on starter Kyle Lohse for a couple home runs, including a grand slam by St. Louis native Ryan Howard. All of the Phillies' runs came on two swings, and both of those home runs came after Lohse, a righthander, had been hit by a pitch on his left elbow during a third-inning at-bat.

Lohse (3-1) pitched to one batter after Howard's fifth-inning, bases-loaded home run, but he didn't see the end of the inning. Ryan Franklin was the fifth of six relievers used to sop up the remaining innings, and he was on the mound when Pedro Feliz's shot to the left-center gap sent Ankiel chasing after it.

Ankiel caught Feliz's blast in stride and took four steps before hitting the wall. Ankiel had started to transfer the ball as he hit the wall, but umpires ruled it a catch and an out after the 10-minute injury delay. Duncan got to Ankiel as the center fielder lay on his back on the warning track, the ball dribbling out of his grasp. Duncan waved for help and then threw the ball back into the infield.

Albert Pujols and many of the Cardinals were already racing out to Ankiel as Duncan's throw reached the infield.

"He hit the wall hard, and yeah it was scary, real scary," Duncan said. "I thought he was going to be unconscious. But he answered me when I asked if he was OK. He said his back hurt and he was just going to stay there."

Mozeliak said that Ankiel did not lose consciousness. Ankiel was able to lift his arms and his legs when prompted on the field, and he checked out "neurologically intact" when he got to the hospital, an official said.

Mozeliak called Ankiel's level of "responsiveness very encouraging."

The game pitted two of the higher-scoring offenses in the league. Lohse entered the game looking to go 4-0 for the first time in his career and after skirting around danger with walks to Howard and Chase Utley in the first inning, he found his groove in the second inning. Lohse allowed one hit and struck out three in his first three innings.

Then a pitch got away from Phillies starter Joe Blanton.

The righthander fired a fastball inside on Lohse in the bottom of the third. The ball drilled Lohse on the left elbow, causing his fingers to go numb. Lohse scored on Joe Thurston's RBI double — the first of the infielder's three hits — to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. He said the feeling didn't return to his left hand until the fourth inning.

That's when trouble started.

"The two innings he pitched afterward, the quality of his stuff wasn't the same," La Russa said. "I don't know if one and one equals two or not, but he was a different pitcher after he was hit."

Howard opened the fourth with a single, and Jayson Werth followed with a two-run home run to upend the Cardinals' lead. In the fifth inning, singles by Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino started the rally but it was Lohse hitting Utley with a pitch that invited the rout. Hitting Utley loaded the bases for Howard. He golfed a low breaking ball that caught too much of the plate deep into the right-field seats.

Lohse said it's possible getting hit on the elbow altered his delivery, but regardless of the soreness that followed "there's a better way to manage the situation" in the fifth inning.

The grand slam was Howard's second of the season and seventh of his career. It was also the Lafayette High grad's seventh in 16 games in his hometown. Howard now has 28 RBIs in those 16 games at Busch Stadium.

"I don't know why," Howard said of his knack for hitting here. "I guess it's just being home. ... Being able to come here and play in not the original Busch Stadium but still Busch Stadium, in front of your family and friends, it's just something that kind of takes you to a different level."