St. Louis – Defense wins championships.
No, not the Steel Curtain, Orange Crush, Doomsday, Purple People Eaters or monsters of that ilk.
We’re talking about the St. Louis Cardinals’ rock-solid fielding and how it has propelled them to a 2-0 lead over the San Diego Padres in the National League division series
Thursday, with starter Mark Mulder emerging from a late-season mini-funk, pitching 6 2/3 crisp innings and inducing ground balls with his sinker, the Cardinals beat the Padres 6-2 at Busch Stadium and moved a step closer to advancing to the NLCS.
The Cardinals can snuff out the Padres’ withering postseason dreams Saturday night at San Diego’s Petco Park.
“We kept the home-field advantage, that’s what you have to do,” St. Louis shortstop David Eckstein said. “We’ve got to stay aggressive, but I’m sure the guys in this clubhouse will be ready to play.”
Eckstein, second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and the rest of the infield has been key for the Cardinals. In their Game 1 victory Tuesday, St. Louis pulled off three inning-ending double plays. In Game 2, the Cardinals turned four double plays, tying an NLDS record. Atlanta turned the trick in Game 1 against the Rockies in 1995 and Houston pulled off four double plays against the Braves in Game 2 in 2001.
“The person who doesn’t get much credit is (third-base and infield coach) Jose Oquendo,” Eckstein said. “From day one of spring training he had me and ‘Grudz’ trying to get a little better, a little quicker. Grudzielanek turns one of the quickest double plays in the league.”
All that work paid off. The Cardinals led the NL in double plays turned during the regular season with 196, coming up just four short of being the fourth team to ever turn 200. But Mulder was key, too. Although he allowed eight hits, the Padres managed just one run off him and Mulder got the Padres to hit into 17 ground-ball outs in his 6 2/3 innings. Mulder earned his third postseason victory.
“Our pitchers are not afraid to pitch contact and hopefully get a ground ball,” St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said.
Said Mulder: “I like using my defense. … I’m not going to get mad about giving up a hit, because you make one good pitch – the next pitch – and you get a double play.”
The Padres, by contrast, were just a hair off in the field Thursday, and with the Cardinals playing small ball, it cost them. In the third inning, the Cardinals scored their first run when Eckstein hit a grounder to Padres first baseman Xavier Nady. His throw home arrived too late to get the sliding Abraham Nuñez, running from third.
The same thing happened in the fourth when Yadier Molina hit a grounder to Nady and Nady’s throw home was too late to get Grudzielanek.
“Those were big runs,” San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said. “We got ground balls at first there and had a chance to cut them off. They were bang-bang plays.”
Nor could the Padres snuff out a run at the plate when Eckstein laid down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt to score Nuñez from third and put the Cardinals ahead 4-0.
The exclamation point to the victory came in the seventh, when Reggie Sanders hit a two-run double down the third-base line, turning a 4-1 St. Louis lead into a 6-1 cushion.
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-820-5459 or at psaunders@denverpost.com.
