Cardinals Make a Big Impression

It’s even harder to combat a lineup loaded with big boppers when the other guys start wielding the heavy lumber.

Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds are great and all, having combined for 206 runs batted in during the regular season, but the St. Louis Cardinals are still perfect in the playoffs because of Reggie Sanders and David Eckstein.

Sanders continued his torrid postseason run with a two-run homer and Eckstein had two hits, drove in a run and scored twice to lead the Cardinals to a 5-3 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in Game 1 of the best-of-seven National League championship series.

Sanders, a career .188 hitter in the playoffs before this season, drove in his 11th and 12th runs of the postseason with his 445-foot homer in the first inning off left-hander Andy Pettitte, who pitched with a swollen right knee after being hit by a line drive in batting practice.

Eckstein scored on the homer and singled and scored in the fifth as St. Louis took a 5-0 lead. The leadoff hitter is batting .412 and has combined with Sanders to drive in 17 of the Cardinals’ 25 runs in four playoff games.

“The guy at the top of our lineup, I told somebody before the game, he’s the toughest guy I’ve ever been around,” St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa said. “He’s tough as nails.”

Sanders dazzled with his glove as well as his bat, making a leaping grab of Mike Lamb’s sixth-inning smash at the base of the left-field wall. The outfielder was serenaded with chants of “Reggie! Reggie!” as he returned to the dugout after the inning.

Sanders could only turn and watch an inning later, though, as pinch-hitter Chris Burke’s two-run homer sailed over his head just inside the left-field foul pole, ending Chris Carpenter’s shutout bid.

Carpenter, a spectator last postseason because of a strained right biceps, held Houston to five hits and two runs in eight innings, though the Astros had their chances.

Houston loaded the bases in the third on a single and two walks, but Lance Berkman grounded into an inning-ending double play, one of 16 ground ball outs induced by Carpenter.

In the Astros’ fourth, Morgan Ensberg’s leadoff double set the stage for a runners-on-first-and-third, one-out opportunity.

Adam Everett chopped a grounder somewhat softly to third baseman Abraham Nunez, whose only sure out appeared to be at first base. But Nunez made a quick and accurate throw to catcher Yadier Molina, who tagged Ensberg for the second out. Brad Ausmus then grounded into a fielder’s choice.

“He’s not one of the fastest guys,” Nunez said of Ensberg, “so I decided to go home.”

Said Eckstein: “That play was unbelievable. He had a little throwing lane and was able to throw a perfect strike to Yadier.”

Things got a little hairy for Cardinal closer Jason Isringhausen in the ninth when two singles and a throwing error by Eckstein on a ball hit to deep shortstop put runners on second and third with one out. But Houston could only squeeze out one run on Ausmus’ sacrifice fly before pinch-hitter Jose Vizcaino sent a first-pitch grounder to first baseman Pujols for the final out.

Sanders has been on a tear since returning in mid-September from a fractured right fibula that forced him to miss 54 games. He has driven in at least one run in 10 consecutive games dating to the regular season and is hitting .333 with two homers in the playoffs.

“It’s all about capitalizing in key situations,” said Sanders, who drove in 54 runs during the regular season, seven fewer than Eckstein. “Really all I’m trying to do is stay within myself and get a pitch I can handle and drive it.”

Houston Manager Phil Garner said he thought Pettitte was hampered by his swollen knee. The pitcher had been running the bases during batting practice when Astro pitcher Roy Oswalt hit him with a line drive.

“I thought he was going to be able to pitch,” Garner said of Pettitte, who gave up five runs in six innings, “but it clearly swelled up on him. You know, I think it was probably a little factor in the game in the way he was trying to work with it.

“But he was trying to pitch through it and I thought he did a good job pitching through it.”