ST. LOUIS - Reggie Sanders, Chris Carpenter and the rest of the Cardinals looked every bit like the best team in baseball - even with a shaky ending.
San Diego played as poorly as its record suggests for most of the day. And now, with ace pitcher Jake Peavy out for the postseason with a broken rib, the Padres might be overmatched.
Sanders hit a grand slam and set an NL division series record with six RBIs, Carpenter pitched six scoreless innings before being pulled as a precaution, and the Cardinals built a big lead before holding on for an 8-5 victory Tuesday in Game 1.
"It's huge," Sanders said. "Let alone getting one RBI in a week, you get six in one day and especially under postseason pressure. It's a great day. But it's not over, we've got a long way to go."
Facing a team that won the West despite an 82-80 record, the Cardinals, who led the majors with 100 wins, opened an 8-0 cushion in the fifth inning against Peavy. He was taken to a hospital after lasting only 41/3 innings.
Even without Peavy, the pesky Padres weren't done. They scored once in the seventh, added another run in the eighth and then got right back into it in the ninth. San Diego scored three times and loaded the bases with two outs before closer Jason Isringhausen struck out Ramon Hernandez.
Cardinal Mark Mulder will oppose Pedro Astacio in Thursday's Game 2 of the best-of-five series.
Jim Edmonds had a home run, double and single to help manager Tony La Russa's team win for the fifth time in six NLDS openers.
As for Sanders, 37, he was on pace for the first 30-homer, 30-steal season of his career before missing 54 games after breaking his right leg in an outfield collision with Edmonds in mid July. Sanders rediscovered his stroke in the final week of the regular season, driving in 10 runs in the last six games and homering three times in the final four.
Carpenter, the ace the Cardinals lacked last fall when they were swept in the World Series by the Red Sox, experienced cramping in his right hand while warming up before the seventh. The Cardinals said dehydration caused the problem and took him out as a precaution.
