Cardinals blank Padres in Game 2

Oct 5, 2006, 23:25 GMT

San Diego, CA - Albert Pujols went 3-for-4 with a run scored and a run batted in to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 2-0 shutout of the San Diego Padres in Game 2 of the National League Division Series at Petco Park.

St. Louis has won the first two games of the best-of-five set and will have a chance to eliminate San Diego from the playoffs in Game 3, which is set for Saturday at Busch Stadium.

Jim Edmonds had an RBI while Preston Wilson scored for the Cardinals, who will send Jeff Suppan to the mound against Chris Young in Game 3.

Jeff Weaver (1-0) picked up the win, giving up two hits while walking three and striking out three in five scoreless innings. Meanwhile, four St. Louis relievers combined to give up two hits in four innings, including Adam Wainwright, who retired the last four batters for his first career postseason save.

'I thought he (Weaver) threw the ball really well, but the lineup is getting ready to see him again and we had a lot of weapons in the bullpen,' said LaRussa. 'I just felt like he wasn't going to pitch into the eighth inning, so you try to give the bullpen a chance to come in and create a problem or not have a problem without waiting until there's some guys on base.'

Adrian Gonzalez, Mike Cameron, Ryan Klesko and Josh Barfield had the only hits for the Padres, who have lost the last eight straight Division Series meetings.

'Pitching and defense is going to win games,' said San Diego outfielder Brian Giles. 'They definitely pitched better than us. It's been a frustrating couple of days. There was about four or five spots in a row where we swung the bats hard and weren't able to get anything. There is a lot of frustration but we can't sit here and feel sorry for ourselves.'

David Wells (0-1) gave up two runs on seven hits with a pair of strikeouts in five innings for the loss for San Diego, which was outhit 10-4.

'Our backs are to the wall,' said San Diego manager Bruce Bochy. 'And the only thing we can do is go down swinging and hopefully we loosen up here, go to St. Louis and get these bats going a little bit. You know, our pitching did a pretty good job. They gave us a chance today, but somewhere along the line we'll have to put some runs on the board. That's the only way you're going to win ball games, and you know, we've been down before during the course of the season. We've been very resilient. Hopefully we show that in St. Louis.'

The Cardinals had an excellent opportunity to get on the board in the second when Ronnie Belliard hit a two-out single to left with Juan Encarnacion on second. The right fielder rounded third, but Dave Roberts fired a one-hopper to Josh Bard, who blocked the plate and applied the tag to keep the game scoreless.

St. Louis moved in front with a pair of runs in the fourth. Wilson doubled to begin the inning and scored moments later on Pujols' base hit to left. On the play, Pujols got trapped in a rundown, but made it safely to second as the Padres got caught with nobody covering second. After an Encarnacion groundout advanced the runner, Edmonds hit a run-scoring infield single up the middle.

With Josh Kinney on the mound in the seventh, the Padres threatened by bringing the tying run to the plate. Geoff Blum drew a two-out walk before pinch-hitter Mike Piazza came to the plate. However, the future Hall of Famer lined the first pitch he saw to Encarnacion in right.

After Tyler Johnson retired the first two batters of the eighth, Wainwright came in and Barfield greeted him with a double, but Gonzalez grounded out to second to end the frame.

'I think it's a huge step in the right direction to come into somebody else's park and win the first two, especially in the short series,' said Weaver. 'So you know we're looking forward to getting back at home and just keep the pressure on them and try to make the series as short as possible. And starting pitchers we got, go out there and keep it close for a while so Mr. Wainwright can come in and do his work.'

Game Notes

San Diego is 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position in the series.

Pujols is 5-for-8 with a homer, two runs scored and three RBI in the series.

The Padres have totaled one run on 10 hits in the first two games of the NLDS.

St. Louis' eight wins in eight postseason games against the Padres is a record for most wins by one NL team over another.

Wells is 10-5 with a 3.17 earned run average in 27 postseason games (17 starts).

The Cardinals are 7-1 in series where they take a 2-0 lead, including 5-0 in the Division Series. The only time they lost after going up 2-0 was in the 1985 World Series versus Kansas City. St. Louis is 19-4 all-time in the Division Series. The Cardinals have won six straight Division Series games and 11 of their last 12.

Nineteen times the road team has won the first two games of the series, and that team has gone on two win the series on 18 of those occasions. The only time the team lost was when the Oakland A's fell in 2001 to the New York Yankees.

© 2006 The Sports Network