Twenty Years Ago: Cardinals Beat Padres on Way to '06 World Series crown

On this day 20 years ago, Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa stood in front of his triumphant St. Louis Cardinals and had one very pointed message for his suddenly surging team.

“I told you so,” La Russa said to the Cardinals after they defeated the Padres 6-2 in Game 4 of the National League Division Series on Oct. 8, 2006 – a win that propelled them onto the NLCS against the heavily favored New York Mets. It was just what La Russa thought would happen with his Cardinals getting healthy and hot at the right time.

As it turns out, the first-round series victory over the Padres would be the first step forward on the march to the most improbable World Series win of the franchise’s 11 in Cardinals’ history.

Despite limping into the playoffs at 83-78 and enduring two eight-game losing streaks along the way, La Russa informed his club before Game 1 against the Padres that no team would want to face the Cardinals with them finally healthy.

That season, an oblique strain to Albert Pujols limited him to 143 games, but he still hit .331 with 49 homers and 137 RBI to finish second in the NL Most Valuable Player race. Fellow Cardinals Hall of Famers Scott Rolen (142 games), Jim Edmonds (110 games) and Yadier Molina (129 games) were also slowed by injuries. Once the squad finally got healthy, a resolve developed that the Cardinals were good enough to win the franchise’s first World Series since 1982.

“I remember coming here, looking around the (locker room) and going, ‘Man, this team has everything that it needs,’” said outfielder Preston Wilson, who had a hit in St. Louis’ Game 4 victory over the Padres that sent it to the NLCS. “We had all the arms that we needed, we had to the role players and we had the superstars with Albert, Jimmy and a young Yadi, who was amazing at controlling the game at a young age. It was just a matter of us getting healthy and getting hot.”

Facing the 88-win Padres in San Deigo, the Cardinals won Games 1 and behind strong pitching from Chris Carpenter and Jeff Weaver. Carpenter outpitched Jave Peavy, who was knocked out after giving up 11 hits and five earned runs in Game 1. Weaver allowed just two hits of scoreless baseball over five innings in the 2-0 Game 2 victory.

After dropping Game 3 at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals avoided the series having to go to a deciding fifth game by rallying behind Carpenter in Game 4. The right-handed ace surrendered two first-inning runs, but that’s all the Padres would get as Carpenter limited San Diego to seven hits and those two earned runs to go with five strikeouts. Molina also assisted by throwing out current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts on a steal attempt at second base to thwart a San Diego rally.

The Cards won the game by breaking a 2-2 tie with four runs in the sixth inning. Juan Encarnacion had a triple and an RBI, Scott Spezio drove in a run and second baseman Ronnie Belliard delivered a two-out, two-run single that sent the Cardinals on their way.

“It was never a question of talent. We just had to have the pieces fall into place and get going at the right time,” said, who had seven hits, two doubles and two RBI during the Cardinals’ march to the 2006 World Series crown. “Everybody in that room knew that we had everything that we needed. We were like, ‘We’ve got all we need and when they see us out there as this unit that is finally healthy, they know that it’s going to be a problem. And it turned out to be true.”