Ace Chris Carpenter will start Game 1 for the Cardinals after winning the NLDS opener with six scoreless innings despite getting dehydrated.
"We've got a great club," the 21-game winner said during a break from champagne dousings in the team's postgame clubhouse bash Saturday night. "We've got to continue to play the way we've been playing in this series to continue to move on. We've got some quality guys here. We played quality games. We went out and swung the bats early."
The Cardinals quickly moved past overmatched San Diego, advancing to the NLCS for the second year in a row and fourth time in six years.
Their pitching was so good, they never had to go to 16-game winner Jeff Suppan or Jason Marquis, who won 13 games this season.
This St. Louis team has long considered itself a World Series contender, especially hungry for another shot at winning it all after being swept by the Boston Red Sox for the championship last year.