By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – The Cardinals beat the Padres 6-2 Sunday night to move to the next round of playoffs. They will face the Mets in New York on Wednesday in the first game of the N.L. Championship Series.
The Mets had the best record of all National League teams during the regular season; the Cardinals had the worst regular season record of all playoff teams this year.
In Sunday's game, St. Louis snapped a 2-2 tie with four runs in the sixth. Juan Encarnacion drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth inning with a run-scoring triple that brought in Albert Pujols. Scott Spiezio, starting in place of slumping third baseman Scott Rolen, added an RBI single. A fielder's choice and a squeeze bunt scored two more runs.
San Diego scored twice in the first off Chris Carpenter, but the Cardinals' ace then settled down to earn his second win of the series with seven solid innings. The Cardinals won the series 3-1.