Sanders, Cardinals Jump All Over Padres

Reggie Sanders, Chris Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals looked every bit like the best team in baseball -- even with a shaky ending.

San Diego played as poorly as its record suggests for most of the day. And now, with ace pitcher Jake Peavy out for the postseason because of a broken rib, the Padres might be overmatched.

Sanders hit a grand slam and set an National League division series record with six runs batted in, Carpenter pitched six scoreless innings before being pulled as a precaution and the Cardinals built a big lead and held off the Padres, 8-5, Tuesday in Game 1.

“It’s huge,” Sanders said. “Let alone getting one RBI in a week, you get six in one day and especially under postseason pressure. It’s a great day.

“But it’s not over; we’ve got a long way to go.”

Facing a team that won the West title despite an 82-80 record, the Cardinals -- who led the majors with 100 wins -- opened an 8-0 cushion in the fifth inning against Peavy. He pitched with an injury that worsened in the third and was taken to a hospital after lasting only 4 1/3 innings.

An MRI exam showed one broken rib on his right side and the possibility of a second break. A Padre spokesman said the injury would take four to six weeks to heal.

“He felt something on his right side,” Manager Bruce Bochy said. “He said he felt it during the course of the game.”

Peavy said he thought he might have bruised his ribs during a celebratory scrum on the field after the Padres clinched the NL West on Wednesday. He said the injury was probably worsened in the third inning when he caught a spike on the rubber on a wild pitch that didn’t even make it to the dirt.

“I thought I had bruised ribs; I never imagined it would be this,” Peavy said. “It’s weird. It’s been a little bothersome but it was nothing we thought would get in my way. I knew it was pretty bad when I came out of the game.”

Even without Peavy, the Padres weren’t done. They scored once in the seventh, scored another run in the eighth and then got right back into it in the ninth. San Diego scored three times and loaded the bases with two out before closer Jason Isringhausen struck out Ramon Hernandez.

“We’re playing a tough team,” Sanders said. “As you can see, they fought to the last out.”

Jim Edmonds helped St. Louis with a home run, double and single. Eric Young had a pinch-hit homer in the eighth for San Diego and an RBI groundout in the ninth.

Manager Tony La Russa’s team won for the fifth time in six NL division series openers, including a victory in 1996 when the Cardinals swept the Padres.