Cardinals trump Padres yet again
ST. LOUIS -- Standing on a folding chair in a raucous clubhouse, Albert Pujols sprayed champagne in every direction. Teammates got soaked -- even owners -- no one was immune.
The tension from Chris Carpenter's shaky beginning, the angst of the St. Louis Cardinals' late-season swoon, all had evaporated. They're going to the National League Championship Series for the third straight season.
``From Day 1, I kept saying this team's got what it takes to get to the World Series," Scott Spiezio said. ``We're a step closer."
Carpenter recovered from a bad first inning to gain his second victory of the series, Juan Encarnacion hit a tiebreaking triple, and the Cardinals beat the San Diego Padres, 6-2, last night to win their best-of-five first-round series, 3-1.
St. Louis nearly wasted a seven-game lead in the final two weeks of the regular season but rebounded against the Padres, a team the Cardinals swept in the first round in 2005.
Escaping trouble in each of the last two innings, the Cardinals sealed the win when Adam Wainwright got Dave Roberts on a groundout with two on. Pujols stepped on the first-base bag for the final out.
``I didn't blame anybody who didn't think we had a very good shot," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who improved to 20-5 in the division series. ``I'm so pleased because it's been such a rough year. We've popped champagne twice, and the goal is to pop it four times."
Back in the NLCS for the third straight year, the Cardinals open the next round Wednesday night at the New York Mets, who won the season series from St. Louis, 4-2.
``They've got a great club," Carpenter said. ``We're going to celebrate tonight and worry about them tomorrow."
San Diego manager Bruce Bochy, whose team won the division for the second straight year, dropped to 1-9 in the postseason against the Cardinals, who also swept the Padres in the opening round in 1996.
``This was a pretty good year," Bochy said. ``Sure, it's disappointing the way it ended. We didn't score a lot of runs in the series, and that was the difference."
Carpenter, who won Tuesday's opener, 5-1, fell behind, 2-0, in the first inning when he walked Russell Branyan with the bases loaded and Mike Cameron followed two pitches later with an RBI grounder.
``I think he was a little bit too pumped up in the first inning," Pujols said.
But that was all the NL West champions would get off Carpenter. He got Josh Barfield to hit into an inning-ending forceout.
``We did have a good chance there to break the game open," Bochy said.
Carpenter followed with six innings of shutout, five-hit ball, leaving him at 2-0 with a 2.02 ERA in the series and 4-0 with a 2.10 ERA in five postseason starts.
Padres starter Woody Williams quickly gave back the lead. Ronnie Belliard, 6 for 13 in the series, tied it in the bottom of the first with a two-run, two-out single. The score stayed tied until the four-run sixth.
Pujols started off the uprising with a walk and, one out later, Encarnacion drove a hanging breaking ball deep to right as Pujols lumbered around the bases for a 3-2 lead.
Cla Meredith relieved and hit Belliard with a pitch, and Spiezio singled up the middle to score Encarnacion. Yadier Molina's single to right loaded the bases, and Carpenter hit a grounder to Branyan. The third baseman's throw pulled catcher Josh Bard off the plate as Belliard slid home for a three-run lead.
