Cardinals 5, Astros 2

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Jim Edmonds made a circus catch. Jeff Suppan outpitched the Rocket. And Albert Pujols and Scott Rolen came through, yet again.

Surrounded by a rollicking sea of red, clearly these St. Louis Cardinals could do no wrong.

With their fans hootin' and hollerin' the whole time, the Cardinals suddenly broke loose in the sixth inning against Roger Clemens. Pujols lined a tying double, Rolen followed with a home run and St. Louis beat the Houston Astros 5-2 Thursday night in Game 7 of the NL championship series.

Next up for the Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox in the World Series opener Saturday night at Fenway Park. By all accounts it should be a classic — they also met in the 1967 and 1946 Series, and St. Louis won both, each time going the full seven games.

”It's going to be a blast,” Edmonds said. ”Boston's a great town. They played so well to beat the Yankees.”

The Astros-Cardinals matchup was the ultimate hometown series — the only best-of-seven LCS where the home team won every game.

”We went to Houston, they got the crowd going,” Pujols said. ”Brought the series back here, did it in front of our home crowd. Like I said, it's amazing.”

The club sporting the famed birds-on-the-bat logo captured its 16th pennant. The Cardinals made it by going 6-0 at home this postseason, rallying from a 3-2 deficit against the wild-card Astros.

The Cards did it in front of fans dressed in red from head to toe. Standing and shouting, they simply would not let their team — which led the majors with 105 wins — fall short.

”There's no doubt that the enthusiasm of the crowds in both places was a factor in the games. Adrenaline starts kicking in and you get stronger and faster,” manager Tony La Russa said.

Suppan overcame a leadoff home run by Craig Biggio to win an apparent mismatch against Clemens. The bullpen combined for three scoreless innings, shutting down Carlos Beltran and Co., with Jason Isringhausen working the ninth for his third save.

”You know there are so many people depending on this right arm to get it done,” Clemens said. ”I really felt good about our chances tonight. It just didn't work out.”

After running away with the NL Central, the Cardinals advanced to their first World Series under La Russa, and first overall since 1987.

The Red Sox have the home-field advantage because the NL lost the All-Star game — Clemens was shelled, and the AL won that edge.

Pujols helped give St. Louis the edge at Busch Stadium. His tying double in the sixth inning left him at .500 with four homers and nine RBIs in the series. Overall, the teams combined for 25 home runs, the most in any postseason series.

”It's every little boy's dream. I'm glad to have won the MVP, but that trophy is going to stay right in this room because everybody here is MVP,” Pujols said.

Rolen hit a two-run homer, and Larry Walker singled home an insurance run in the eighth.

”We got every element,” Walker said.

For the Astros, it was devastating. They have never reached the World Series since their expansion season of 1962, the same year Clemens was born.

Given an early 2-0 lead, Clemens could not hold it in his record fourth start in a Game 7.

Suppan was 0-4 in head-to-head games against Clemens this year, including a loss in Game 3. Yet he pitched out of trouble for six innings, then turned it over to relievers Kiko Calero, Julian Tavarez and Isringhausen.

The Cardinals improved to 9-4 in Game 7s, the most such wins in baseball. They did it against Clemens, who ended a brief retirement and came back to pitch for his hometown team.

After the game, he did not say whether this was his last game.

”I'll leave that for later,” he said.

While Rolen and Pujols did the major damage in the sixth, Roger Cedeno surely deserved some credit for rattling the Rocket.

Cedeno opened the sixth with a pinch-hit single, his 11th hit in 25 lifetime at-bats against Clemens, and immediately began dancing off first base. Clemens made three pickoff throws and stepped off the rubber three times trying to hold Cedeno close.

Cedeno moved up on a bunt, and again his leads attracted Clemens' attention before the speedster took third on Walker's groundout. That brought up Pujols, and brought Garner to the mound.

With the count at 1-2, catcher Brad Ausmus again visited Clemens. Pujols lined the next pitch into the left-field corner, cocking his arm as he eased into second with a tying double.

The crowd was going crazy by then, and Rolen seized the opportunity. Clemens tried to throw a first-pitch fastball by Rolen, and instead the All-Star slugger rocketed it just inside the left-field foul pole.

”We faced him last week and he threw a lot of splitters and sliders, and we knew here he was going to change something — he was throwing a lot of heaters,” Pujols said.

Biggio picked on Suppan's fourth pitch, hitting a no-doubt drive to left.

The next inning, Edmonds prevented big trouble for the Cards with the type of catch that's made him a six-time Gold Glove winner. Shaded toward right-center, he raced back into the left-center alley and made a headlong dive to rob Ausmus with two runners on. Clods of grass kicked up as Edmonds' knees hit the ground, and he slid several feet on his stomach.

”It's probably the hardest I ever ran for a ball. It just faded into me,” Edmonds said.

Suppan helped himself with a suicide-squeeze bunt in the third that made it 2-1.

Notes: The Cardinals became the first NL Central team to reach the World Series. It was the only division without an appearance.

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