Ethier, Ramirez propel Dodgers to sweep of error-prone Cards

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Unemployed in August, Vicente Padilla kept the Los Angeles Dodgers going in October.

The second-chance pitcher shut down Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals, putting the Dodgers back in the National League championship series with a 5-1 victory on Saturday night.

Andre Ethier missed the cycle by a single, Manny Ramirez had three hits and two RBIs 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.

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.

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 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.

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 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. Pfft.

Ramirez, only 1 for 8 the first two games amid suggestions by manager Joe Torre that he was trying too hard, 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 gams 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.

Joel Pineiro, a 15-game winner and the last of the Cardinals’ big three starters to come up empty, allowed four runs in four innings in an outing that matched his shortest of the season.

The sinkerball specialist allowed only 11 homers in the regular season, but surrendered five in his last three starts.

The Cardinals’ demise, though, was due to the failure of an offense beefed up with the acquisitions of Holliday, Mark DeRosa and Julio Lugo since late June.

Los AngelesSt. Louis

abrhbiabrhbi

Furcal ss5121Schmkr 2b3000

Kemp cf5110Lugo ph-2b0100

Ethier rf5232Ludwck rf4010

MRmrz lf5032Pujols 1b4021

Pierre lf0000Hollidy lf4000

Loney 1b4010Rasms cf3010

Blake 3b4010YMolin c4020

Bellird 2b4110DeRosa 3b4000

OHudsn 2b0000BrRyan ss3000

RMartn c4000Ankiel ph1000

VPadill p3000Pineiro p1000

Thome ph1000DReyes p0000

Sherrill p0000Thurstn ph1000

Broxtn p0000Smoltz p0000

Motte p0000

LaRue ph1000

Frnkln p0000

Totals405125Totals33161

Los Angeles102100100—5

St. Louis000000010—1

E—Pineiro (1). LOB—Los Angeles 8, St. Louis 7. 2B—Ethier (2), M.Ramirez 2 (3), Rasmus (3), Y.Molina (1). 3B—Ethier (1). HR—Ethier (2). SB—Lugo (2).

IPHRERBBSO

Los Angeles

V.Padilla W,1-0740014

Sherrill2-301110

Broxton1 1-320002

St. Louis

Pineiro L,0-1474403

D.Reyes100002

Smoltz241105

Motte100000

Franklin110001

Umpires—Home, Mike Everitt; First, Jeff Nelson; Second, Ed Rapuano; Third, Tony Randazzo; Right, Brian O’Nora; Left, Dana DeMuth. T—3:02. A—47,296.