The St. Louis Cardinals have to be feeling pretty good right now. The last 11 teams to win game one of the NLCS have gone on to the World Series. The Cardinals outslugged the Astros 10-7 in the NLCS opener. Carlos Beltran and Albert Pujols exchanged two-run homers in the first. Houston went up 4-2 in the fourth thanks to a two-run home run by Jeff Kent. The Cardinals tied the game with two runs in the fifth. Scott Rolen picked up his first hit of the postseason, an RBI single that made it 4-4. The Cardinals then exploded with six runs in the sixth. Roger Cedeno’s RBI groundout gave St. Louis a 5-4 lead. Run-scoring singles from Tony Womack and Larry Walker gave the Cardinals a 7-4 advantage. Three batters later, Jim Edmonds put the game away with a three-run double to right. A pair of late Houston home runs made the score 10-7, but Jason Isringhausen got Carlos Beltran to ground out to end the game. Woody Williams got the win for St. Louis. He gave up four runs on four hits in six innings. Game two is Thursday night in St. Louis. Matt Morris faces Pete Munro.
