The second-chance pitcher shut down Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals with a 5-1 victory Saturday night, putting the Dodgers back in the National League Championship Series.
"Anytime you win a series it's good," Casey Blake said. "But to sweep the Cardinals, it just doesn't happen. I would have never guessed we would have swept them."
Andre Ethier missed the cycle by a single, Manny Ramirez had three hits and two RBI and the Dodgers didn't need help this time from another St. Louis fielding blunder to sweep their division series opponent for a second straight season. Los Angeles scored all five runs with two outs.
Pujols and Matt Holliday were a combined 2-for-8 with a late RBI for the Cardinals, who never recharged after becoming the first National League team to clinch a division title. St. Louis was 1-9 after wrapping up the NL Central, and was swept for the first time in the division series or NLCS play and only for the third time overall in the postseason.
"From the get-go, they beat us to the punch all night," manager Tony La Russa said. "So give them credit."
Pujols, 3-for-10 with an RBI and no extra-base hits in the series, left Busch Stadium without speaking to reporters.
Closer Jonathan Broxton struck out Rick Ankiel for the last out and pumped his fist as the Dodgers ran out to the mound to celebrate becoming the first team to advance to the championship series. They await the winner of the Philadelpia-Colorado series that is even at a game apiece. The Phillies beat Los Angeles in the NLSC last season in five games.
Padilla, designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers in early August, was 4-0 the final month with the Dodgers before shutting down the Cardinals on four hits over seven innings in his first career postseason appearance. After escaping a bases-loaded jam in the first inning he was dominant, retiring 19 of 21 hitters against a team he last faced in 2003.
"Big lineup," Padilla said through an interpreter. "I just tried to make the pitches that I knew I capable of throwing."
The Dodgers were already up 3-0 in the third inning when starter Joel Pineiro dropped Pujols' simple toss at first for an error on James Loney's grounder for the lifeless Cardinals, who were beset by bad play this series.
Holliday, who dropped a fly ball for what would have been the final out of Game 2, got a standing ovation from a sellout crowd of 47,296 before his first at-bat with two men on and one out in the first. Then he tapped out to the mound.
Ramire gave the Dodgers the early lead with a two-out RBI double in the first.
Ethier, who had only one homer in the last 12 games of the regular season, jumped on a 3-1 pitch for a two-run shot that made it 3-0 in the third. It was his second homer of the series.
Ronnie Belliard singled to start the fourth, stole second and scored on Rafael Furcal's single for a 4-0 cushion.
That was more than enough for the Dodgers, who were 2-5 against the Cardinals during the regular season with all the games played when St. Louis was its best.
Game 3 in Denver postponed
DENVER - The snow in Colorado scrapped plans for Pedro Martinez's first postseason start in five years.
Game 3 of the Philadelphia-Colorado playoff series was postponed a day because of weather Saturday better suited for cross-country skiing. That prompted a pitching switch by the Phillies, with left-hander J.A. Happ going to the mound today instead of the 37-year-old Martinez. The Rockies are sticking with Jason Hammel.
The Phillies holed up in their hotel Saturday with no plans of working out at the ballpark. The Rockies summoned their players for a 90-minute workout inside Coors Field.
Major League Baseball pushed back Game 3 of this NL division series to tonight and Game 4 to Monday.
The playoff is tied at one game each. Game 5, if necessary, will be played as scheduled Tuesday in Philadelphia, without a day off for travel.
Before the weather changed things, Martinez was set to make his first postseason start since he won Game 3 for Boston at St. Louis in the 2004 World Series.
A cold front moved into Denver overnight, dropping temperatures into the teens with record lows for the date. Coors Field was covered with a thin layer of snow and ice Saturday morning and flurries were expected to continue through the night.
With the front moving out Saturday night, temperatures are expected to approach 50 today.
