Cardinals take commanding lead in NLDS

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Not even San Diego native David Wells could save the Padres, who appear to be headed for their same ol' postseason fate against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds hit RBI singles off Wells in the fourth inning and Jeff Weaver held the popgun Padres in check to lead the Cardinals to a 2-0 win Thursday at Petco Park and a 2-0 lead in the division series.

The two-time NL West champion Padres spoke about going deep into this postseason. Heck, if they don't start hitting the ball, they might not go deep into this weekend.

Frank Russell showed the new television in the sleeper of his truck that was customized for the Trick My Truck show on Country Music Television. (Fred Lynch)

San Diego has now lost nine straight postseason games dating to its World Series sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees in 1998.

Pujols got three more hits after homering in the 5-1 victory in Game 1.

Weaver, dumped by the Los Angeles Angels with a 3-10 record, and four relievers combined on a four-hitter. The Padres have only 10 hits in the first two games and are 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

Game 3 is Saturday at St. Louis. Game 4 would be Sunday, if necessary, but history suggests otherwise. St. Louis, which barely avoided one of the biggest September collapses ever, improved to 8-0 in the postseason against San Diego. That includes division series sweeps last year and in 1996.

In those eight games, San Diego has led for only four innings, all in Game 3 in 1996. They ended up losing that game 7-5 when Brian Jordan, who made a spectacular diving catch in the eighth inning, hit a two-run homer off Trevor Hoffman in the ninth, with the ball landing in a palm tree beyond the left-field fence at Qualcomm Stadium.

Overall, the Padres haven't led in a postseason game since being up 3-2 against the Yankees after seven innings of Game 3 of the '98 Series. Scott Brosius stunned the Padres with a three-run homer off Hoffman in the eighth inning -- his second shot of the night -- and the Yankees won 5-4.

Weaver, making his second postseason start, outpitched Wells, who was making his 17th postseason start and 27th appearance dating to 1989.

Weaver gave up two singles in five scoreless innings, allowing only two Padres baserunners as far as second base. He struck out three and walked three.

Relievers Randy Flores, Josh Kinney, Tyler Johnson and Adam Wainwright pitched four innings of two-hit ball. Wainwright got the last four outs for the save.

Padres rookie Josh Barfield doubled off Wainwright with two outs in the eighth before Adrian Gonzalez grounded to second.

Weaver struggled so badly with the Angels this year that he was traded to make room in their rotation for his younger brother, Jered. But he earned this start by going 4-1 with a 4.03 ERA in eight road starts with St. Louis.

The Padres obtained the 43-year-old Wells from the Boston Red Sox on Aug. 31, mostly because of his history of postseason success, which included World Series championships with Toronto in 1992 and the Yankees in 1998, when he beat San Diego in Game 1.

Wells, who said he'll retire when the season ends, lost his third straight postseason start, allowing two runs and seven hits in five innings. He struck out two and walked none. Overall, the hefty lefty is 10-5 in the postseason.

The Padres had only six hits on Tuesday, when they lost 5-1 to Chris Carpenter. Pujols launched the Cardinals in that victory with a two-run homer off Padres ace Jake Peavy.

Preston Wilson hit Wells' first pitch of the fourth inning over left fielder Dave Roberts' head for a double. The Padres chose to pitch to Pujols, who lined a fastball into left to score Wilson. The Padres caught Pujols in a rundown, but shortstop Geoff Blum didn't get over to the bag in time and the slugger slid into second.

Pujols took third on Juan Encarnacion's grounder for the second out and scored on Edmonds' hit deep to the hole at second. Todd Walker smothered the ball but had no play. Roberts ended the inning with a nice diving catch of Ronnie Belliard's fly ball.

Encarnacion was thrown out at home by Roberts trying to score on Ronnie Belliard's single to medium left field, ending the second inning. Belliard tried to kick the ball out of Bard's glove, but he held on.

The Padres stranded seven runners, two each in the first and fifth innings.

Notes: The Padres were 45-36 on the road this year, including winning two of three at St. Louis last week. ... St. Louis hadn't blanked a playoff opponent since finishing the 1987 NL championship series with shutout wins against San Francisco in Games 6 and 7. ... Hoffman, baseball's all-time saves leader, caught the ceremonial first pitch from the man he passed in the record book, Lee Smith. The two also exchanged autographed baseballs. ... The Padres presented Hoffman with a Gibson electric guitar signed by AC/DC's Angus Young, along with a collection of the band's CDs. AC/DC's "Hells Bells" has been played for Hoffman's entrance from the bullpen since July 25, 1998.