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Cardinals attempt to maintain Division Series dominance

Oct 5, 2006 - 1:14 PM St. Louis at San Diego 4:09 pm EDT National League Division Series Cardinals lead, 1-0

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) - Players and coaches may come and go, but the St. Louis Cardinals continue to thrive in the National League Division Series.

Jeff Weaver gets the call as the Cardinals look for their eighth consecutive postseason victory over the San Diego Padres on Thursday in Game Two of this year's NLDS.

The Central Division champion Cardinals swept San Diego in their two prior NLDS encounters (1996, 2005). St. Louis has taken 11 of its last 12 NLDS games and is 18-4 overall, with three losses against the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001.

"The other two Division Series are in the book," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "It has no relevance. This is a different team for them. We got a lot of the same guys, but the Padres have shown over and over again, especially here in the last six weeks, they're a very tough bunch, very resilient."

La Russa is going with Weaver (5-4, 5.18 ERA), who was 8-14 overall this season, but went 4-1 with a 4.13 road ERA after joining the Cardinals on July 5. The move allows St. Louis to use Jeff Suppan for Game Three at home, where he was 7-2 this year.

Unbeaten after September 2, Weaver won his last three decisions of the regular season. However, he did not get one against San Diego on June 16, when he yielded three runs and seven hits in six innings.

After losing nine of their last 12 regular-season games, the Cardinals won for the fifth time in six NLDS series openers with Tuesday's 5-1 triumph over the Padres. Albert Pujols belted his 11th career postseason homer, a two-run blast in the fourth inning.

"My attitude is to come to the ballpark, what can I do to help my team to win?" Pujols said. "I don't think about if they're going to pitch to me or if they will because I want to be aggressive. If I start thinking a lot of things like that, that's going to take my aggression away."

Looking to avoid a 2-0 deficit, San Diego counters with David Wells (1-2, 3.49), who is 10-4 with a 3.15 ERA in 26 playoff contests. The 43-year old lefthander suffered an ankle injury earlier in the season with the Boston Red Sox and has had gout in his right toe in recent weeks.

Making what could be his final major league start, Wells closed the regular season by giving up four hits in six scoreless innings of Saturday's victory against the Diamondbacks.

Dave Roberts collected three of San Diego's six hits, including a triple in the sixth inning. However, it was not enough for the Padres, who lost after winning nine of their last 11 regular-season games.

"We have to regroup," Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. "We've been resilient all year. That's the way we have to be now. I mean, this is one game and we got beat. I mean, it's the bottom line ... and we gotta put this behind us and come out and keep grinding. That's all you can do at this point."

The series shifts to St. Louis for Game Three on Saturday.