Bye Bye Birdies
The Dodgers await Colorado or Philadelphia
A lights-out performance from pitcher Vicente Padilla helped LA finish the job Saturday afternoon in St. Louis.
LA defeated the Cardinals 5-1, winning the National League Division Series.
The Dodgers will play either the Colorado Rockies or the Philadelphia Phillies for the NL title. Saturday's game between those teams was postponed because of snow in Colorado.
The Phillies beat Los Angeles in the NLSC last season in five games.
The Dodgers received an outstanding game from Padilla. He pitched seven scoreless innings.
Andre Ethier missed the cycle by a single, Manny Ramirez had three hits and two RBIs and the Dodgers didn't need help from another Cardinals fielding blunder to sweep their division series opponent for a second straight season.
"To show up now and contribute and be a main guy, it's nice to come through," Ethier said.
Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday were a combined 2 for 8 with a late RBI for the Cardinals, who never recharged after being the first National League team to clinch a division title.
Padilla, designated for assignment by the Rangers in early August, was 4-0 the final month with the Dodgers before shutting down the Cardinals on four hits over seven innings in his first career postseason appearance. After escaping a bases-loaded jam in the first inning he was dominant, retiring 19 of 21 hitters against a team he last faced in 2003.
The Dodgers were already up 3-0 in the third inning when starter Joel Pineiro dropped Pujols' simple toss at first for an error on Jame Loney's grounder for the lifeless Cardinals.
Holliday, who dropped a fly ball for what would have been the final out of Game 2, got a standing ovation from a sellout crowd of 47,296 before his first at-bat with two men on and one out in the first. Then he tapped out to the mound.
Ramirez, only 1 for 8 the first two games amid suggestions by manager Joe Torre that he was trying too hard, gave the Dodgers the early lead with a two-out RBI double in the first.
"I was just was trying to be more aggressive," Ramirez said. "Anything on the plate, I was ready for."
Ethier, who had only one homer in the last 12 games of the regular season, jumped on a 3-1 pitch for a two-run shot that made it 3-0 in the third. It was his second homer of the series.
Ronnie Belliard singled to start the fourth, stole second and scored on Rafael Furcal's single for a 4-0 cushion.\
Furcal, the Dodgers' leadoff man, had two hits and was 7 for 12 in the series with two RBIs. Ethier was 6 for 12 with three RBIs after getting no RBIs in his first 37 career postseason at-bats.
Closer Jonathan Broxton struck out Rick Ankiel for the last out and pumped his fist as the Dodgers ran out to the mound to celebrate becoming the first team to advance to the championship series.
