Padres of 2005 were right about Cardinals of 2006

10-05-2006

By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

A year ago the Padres talked about how anything could happen in a short post-season series despite barely managing a winning record en route to the National League West title. Well, it turns out the Padres of 2005 have been proven right, but by the St. Louis Cardinals of 2006.

The Cardinals, who limped home to the 2006 NL Central title, are one game from duplicating their sweep of the Padres in 2005. The Cardinals aren’t the heavy favorite to eliminate San Diego this year as they were in 2005, but Thursday’s 2-0 win at Petco Park before another full house of 43,463 gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

The thinking a year ago is that with the overpowering pitching of Jake Peavy in a short series, the Padres could play good defense and come up with enough clutch hitting to steal a series. That’s exactly the formula the Cardinals have used in a 5-1 win Tuesday and a shutout Thursday.

“We’ve been preaching all along that pitching and defense is going to win you games,” right fielder Brian Giles said. “They have definitely pitched better than us and offensively we haven’t been able toput pressure of them and get into the bullpen.”

Albert Pujols again beat the Padres. After hitting a two-run home run Tuesday in the fourth inning, he struck again in the fourth when he drove in one run and scored another on a single by Jim Edmonds. He also avoided a rundown and advanced to second base to get into scoring position.

]“He’s so good in the clutch,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s going to go down as one of the best hitters in the game. He hits for power, he can hit the other way and he can steal a base. He’s one of the best players in the game.”

Both times the Cardinals had their keys runs on the scoreboard before the shadows from the early days of October started to darken vision of baseball released from the mound to the batting box.

“It’s important to get a lead early on knowing the shadows are coming in,” Giles said. “We found that out in game one. We couldn’t get anything going offensively and they did a good job pitching too.”

All season the Padres made all the right moves, from general manager Kevin Towers acquisition of key talent through trades and the free agent signing of catcher Mike Piazza to manager Bruce Bochy’s juggling of the lineup throughout the season.

But there was one move the Padres never made or were able to take advantage of in Thursday’s second game of the National League Division Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. That would be the appearance in the batting order of a big bat to change games.

They managed only four hits, with one of them a pinch-hit single by Ryan Klesko when he batted for David Wells. The veteran pitcher held the Cardinals down to two runs, but nothing short of a shutout would help the Padres.

Cardinals pitcher Jeff Weaver was able to get his breaking ball over consistently to frustrate the Padres.

“He mixed his pitches up well,” Giles said. “For him, he was able to get his breaking ball over and he was able to do that today. There were four or five at bats we swung the bat and hit the ball hard but had nothing to show for it. That’s the frustrating thing.”

The Padres, swept by the Cardinals in 1996 and again in 2005, have now lost eight straight post-season games to the Cardinals. But dating back to their four-game sweep in the 1998 World Series by the New York Yankees, the Padres have now dropped nine straight post-season games.

But the Padres, who have played better on the road since Petco opened in 2004, might have the Cardinals where they want them now that the series shifts to St. Louis for games Saturday and Sunday.

“We can’t sit hear and feel sorry for ourselves,” Giles said. “We dug ourselves this whole, but this team has been ready to play pretty much every game this year. I don’t see anything different on Saturday. We would have liked to keep the home field advantage, but that’s not the scenario. It’s a must win for us.”

Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.