So much for reason.
On a long night of wasted opportunities for both clubs, the Dodgers patched together four runs off Carpenter in five innings, and their impressive bullpen kept the Cardinals' bats in cold storage in a 5-3 win.
St. Louis has the league's top pitching tandem in Carpenter and Adam Wainwright, who will start Game 2 tonight. They combined for 36 wins, and it's almost certain one of them will win the Cy Young. In the opinion of many, they would be the difference in a best-of-five series.
Instead, the Dodgers showed no carryover from their late-season troubles. Matt Kemp gave the Dodgers the impetus they needed with a two-run homer in the first inning.
If the Dodgers can knock off Wainwright tonight, they will be only the second team this season to defeat Carpenter and Wainwright when they pitched back-to-back games. Tonight will be the 19th time the two righthanders pitched back-to-back.
The two teams combined to leave an division series-record 30 runners on base - 16 by the Dodgers.
Randy Wolf, who pitched eight seasons for the Phillies, waited 11 years before getting a postseason start and only three batters to find himself in a huge mess once he did.
The lefthander has long tended to get excitable, and manager Joe Torre had surmised Wolf might have difficulty containing his emotions in perhaps the most significant game of his career.
So maybe it was partly the result of his adrenaline working overtime that helped lead Wolf into early control problems. A walk, a double and an intentional walk to Albert Pujols left Wolf with a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the first inning.
He needed a big pitch, and he threw one when he nipped the corner on a 3-2 count to strike out dangerous Matt Holliday. After Ryan Ludwick's bloop single scored a run, Wolf escaped further harm by enticing Yadier Molina into a double-play grounder.
