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Cardinals take game one over Padres

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 October 2005, 15:32 CDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Reggie Sanders hit a grand slam and drove in six runs as the St Louis Cardinals opened the National League playoffs with an 8-5 win over the San Diego Padres Tuesday in St Louis.

His grand slam in the fifth inning gave the Cardinals an 8-0 lead behind a sharp Chris Carpenter and handed the defending NL champion Cardinals a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League Divisional Series.

Game two in the series is Thursday, also at Busch Stadium in St Louis.

Jim Edmonds got the Cardinals going quickly with a solo home run in the first and scored three more runs in the third, with Sanders contributing a two-run single and another run scoring on a wild pitch.

Sanders then hit his grand slam in the fifth off starter and loser Jake Peavy and the Cardinals had enough offense to hold off a late Padres comeback attempt.

Carpenter, a leading contender for the NL Cy Young Award, allowed just three hits while striking out three and walking three over six innings.

Four relievers finished up, including Jason Isringhausen, who got the final two outs to end the game in the ninth despite allowing four hits as the Padres scored three runs in the ninth.

Peavy allowed eight runs on eight hits over 4 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking three.

Edmonds wound up with three hits, three runs scored and an RBI for the Cards. Sanders had two of the St Louis 10 hits.

Eric Young homered and drove in two runs for the Padres, while Ryan Klesko, Brian Giles and Mark Sweeney all had two hits for San Diego.

Trailing 8-0, the Padres scored single runs in the seventh and eighth before a three-run rally in the ninth fell short.

Source: REUTERS

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