San Diego – As Jered Weaver watched his older brother, Jeff, take the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday afternoon at Petco Park, Jered figured his brother was going to have a good day.
Jeff’s body language told him so.
“He seemed more calm and focused than in past situations,” said Jered, the Los Angeles Angels’ promising rookie starter.
Obviously, little brother knows his big brother well.
In the Cardinals’ 2-0 victory in Game 2 of the National League divisional series, Jeff Weaver didn’t simply defeat the Padres, he dominated them, allowing just two hits and striking out three in five innings.
“I don’t think there was any one guy in here that would have thought we would have gotten shut out today,” said Padres starter David Wells, saddled with a loss in what could have been his final big-league game. “A lot of guys were licking their chops. Obviously, he stopped that real quick.”
Considering Weaver is 0-2 with an ugly 9.72 ERA in three previous postseason games with the Yankees and Dodgers, it was understandable why the Padres were salivating at the thought of facing him and evening the series. Instead, the punchless Padres head to St. Louis for Saturday’s Game 3 down 0-2 in the best-of-five series.
Weaver wobbled in the first inning, walking Brian Giles and Adrian Gonzalez. But he dug in and got catcher Josh Bard, a Cherry Creek High School graduate, to ground out to first, ending the threat.
“I just knew I couldn’t give in to any situation,” Weaver said. “If I walked a guy, so be it. I just wanted to stay away from extra-base hits. I was able to throw a lot of quality breaking balls to keep those guys off-balance.”
Considering the way the Padres are swinging the bat, that’s doable. In two games, they’ve scored one run, have just 10 hits and are 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
“Give them credit, they’re making big pitches and getting us out,” San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said. “And the only thing that’s going to change that is us. We’ve got to get a big hit, put some runs on the board. Pretty simple game, really.
“Today we just got shut down completely.”
The Cardinals’ offense wasn’t powerful Thursday, just potent enough, thanks to first baseman Albert Pujols, who continues to torment the Padres. He went 3-for-4, with an RBI, a run scored and a double. He’s 5-for-8 with a homer and three RBIs in the series.
Cardinals left fielder Preston Wilson opened the fourth with a double and scored on Pujols’ sharp single to left. Pujols was caught in a rundown between first and second, but San Diego second baseman Todd Walker failed to cover the bag, allowing Pujols to advance to second. Pujols moved to third on Juan Encarnacion’s groundout to short, then scored on Jim Edmonds’ single.
“On the rundown, we just didn’t execute,” Bochy said. “It could have been a one-run ballgame, but we made a mistake there.”
The Cardinals entered the postseason in a free-fall, having lost nine of their last 12 regular-season games, but they have played flawlessly in the series. Their bullpen, the suspected weak link, smothered the Padres for the second straight game.
“I think we are all kind of riding high right now,” rookie closer Adam Wainwright said after notching his first postseason save.
“We are a very confident team. We knew we were a great team, we just weren’t clicking. Now we’re clicking, and it’s the right time to do it.”
Staff writer Patrick Saunderscan be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
