It’s on to New York for the underdog St. Louis Cardinals.
While they struggled at the season’s end, backed into the National League Division Series and were picked to lose to the San Diego Padres, the Redbirds prevailed 6-2 Sunday night won with the best of five series three games to one.
Cardinal’s ace Chris Carpenter pitched seven strong innings to earn his second victory of the series and avoid a trip back to San Diego for Game 5.
He and the rest of the Cardinals would have had to go home and pack bags for the flight. The team decided not to prepare for the trip to San Diego for a fifth game.
St. Louis broke open a 2-2 game with four runs in the sixth inning against Padres starter Woody Williams and reliever Cla Meredith. Juan Encarnacion’s opposite-field triple into the right-field corner scored Albert Pujols from first with the go-ahead run.
The Cards added another run on a single by Scott Spiezio, who started at third in place of slumping Scott Rolen, a San Diego error and David Eckstein’s suicide squeeze play.
The Cardinals open the NLCS against the New York Mets at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
