Cardinals sweep, advance to NLCS

SAN DIEGO -- Reggie Sanders and the St. Louis Cardinals seem to be in a hurry to return to the World Series, and they weren't about to be slowed by the San Diego Padres.

The Cardinals, baseball's best team in the regular season, brushed aside the Padres just as almost everybody thought they would, winning 7-4 Saturday night for a three-game sweep of their first-round playoff series.

"We're just glad we have it over," Sanders said. "We have a big series coming up next. We're just going to take a little time off and get ourselves ready."

The Cardinals made it to the World Series last year before flopping in a four-game sweep by the Boston Red Sox. St. Louis advances to the NL championship series for the fourth time in six years, and will have home-field advantage against the winner of the Houston-Atlanta series. The Astros lead 2-1 -- they lost to St. Louis in seven games in last year's NLCS.

Sanders drove in two more runs to set an NL division series record with 10, and little David Eckstein hit his first career postseason homer as the Cardinals chased former teammate Woody Williams before he could get out of the second inning.

Right-hander Matt Morris, who's been with the Cardinals since 1997 and is their longest-tenured player, recovered from his late-season struggles to hold the Padres hitless for 4 1-3 innings. With two on in the bottom of the ninth, Jason Isringhausen struck out Brian Giles and retired Ryan Klesko on a comebacker to earn his 10th career postseason save.

Sanders and Eckstein are the only Cardinals players with World Series rings. Sanders won his with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001, and Eckstein with the Angels the following season.

"I'm just going to keep working and go from there," Sanders said.

San Diego was as mediocre in this series as it was in winning the woeful NL West. The Padres never led, and their starting pitchers lasted only 10 innings, with a 13.50 ERA. San Diego (82-80) entered the playoffs with the worst winning percentage of a division champion (.506) in a non-strike season. Including this series, they finished one game under .500.

Other than a ninth-inning rally by the Padres that fell short in Game 1, this series was like a bully kicking sand in the face of a 98-pound weakling at the beach. Sanders, who played for the Padres in 1999, did the most damage.

In Game 1, he hit a grand slam off ace Jake Peavy and finished with an NL division series-record six RBIs, then drove in two more runs in Game 2.

Saturday night, Sanders stepped in against Williams with the bases loaded and two outs in the second, and lined a 1-1 pitch into left field for a 5-0 lead.

Four batters earlier, Williams left an 85 mph pitch over the middle of the plate and Eckstein -- the 5-foot-7, 165-pound shortstop -- drove it over the left-field fence for a two-run homer. It was Eckstein's 24th career postseason game. He had three hits and a walk.

Williams made four postseason starts for St. Louis last year, including Game 1 of the World Series, when he allowed seven runs and eight hits over 2 1-3 innings for a no-decision in an 11-9 loss.

Williams was shaky from the start of San Diego's first home postseason game since 1998. Eckstein singled to shallow left-center on the second pitch and scored on Albert Pujols' double to right-center with one out.

The Cardinals batted around in the second. Morris was aboard for Eckstein's homer, then Williams loaded the bases by allowing a double to Jim Edmonds, intentionally walking Pujols and hitting Larry Walker with a pitch on the right knee. Sanders' double chased the 39-year-old right-hander.

Williams allowed five runs and six hits in 1 2-3 innings, struck out two and walked two.

Morris held San Diego to two runs and five hits in six innings, struck out four and walked three. He began the year 10-1 but ended the regular season with a career-high five-game losing streak, spanning seven starts.

St. Louis took a 7-0 lead on Yadier Molina's two-run single in the fifth. All-Star closer Trevor Hoffman made his first appearance of the series for the Padres in the ninth, but San Diego trailed by three runs.

The Padres finally broke through against Morris a half-inning later. Joe Randa hit a one-out double and scored on a single by pinch-hitter Eric Young. Mark Loretta singled in Young.

Dave Roberts homered in the seventh off Brad Thompson, and Ramon Hernandez connected in the eighth against Julian Tavarez.

"It got scary when you have a good team like that and they have a momentum shift," Sanders said.

Notes: This was the first playoff game in Petco Park's two-year history, and the first postseason game in San Diego since Game 4 of the 1998 World Series, when the New York Yankees completed a sweep. ... San Diego has lost seven straight postseason games. ... The Padres also were swept by the Cardinals in the 1996 division series.