Cardinals, Dodgers bring a lot of history to matchup

LOS ANGELES - The Cardinals and Dodgers have combined for 35 National League pennants and 16 World Series championships. Managers Tony La Russa and Joe Torre are third and fifth all time in major league wins and have won six championships between them.

The Cardinals have the best one-two starting combination in baseball in Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright. They also have the best player in baseball. All Albert Pujols did this year was lead the NL in home runs, finished third in batting average and third in RBI.

The Dodgers won more games than any team in the National League, but had no .300 hitters and no pitchers with more than 12 wins. They also have the bizarre Manny Ramirez, who took a 50-game "vacation'' starting in early May after hitting .372 in April. Manny also hit .229 in September and struck out four times last Friday against the Rockies.

Carpenter, 2 years after undergoing Tommy John elbow surgery and a year after a nerve problem quickly ended his season, has been brilliant all year with a 17-4 record. The bigger the game, the better he pitches. In eight postseason games, he is 5-1 with a 2.53 ERA. He gets the ball for the Cardinals at Dodger Stadium in the third game of today's (9:37 p.m.) playoff tripleheader

"He's a great competitor with great stuff,'' La Russa said.

Torre is going with Randy Wolf, making the first postseason start of his career in his 11th year, eight of them with the Phillies. His 11-7 record won't dazzle until you realize he won six of his last seven decisions and held opponents to just a .227 batting average, seventh best in the NL.

If the Dodgers win the best-of-five series, they host Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS next week. If the Cardinals win and the Phillies beat the Rockies, the Phillies get home field. So there is interest in Philly in what goes down between franchises that have been winning forever.

The Dodgers will not dazzle you with personnel. And the Cardinals did beat them five of seven during the season. But the Dodgers did win all those games. And doesn't Manny have to become Manny again? Only a cynic would wonder if the reason for his spring "vacation'' played some role in his deteriorating numbers.