Ringo bracket: Cardinals (87) defeat Astros (87) in five games

Game One: 87 Cardinals 8, 87 Astros 1
WP: Mathews (2-0)
LP: Ryan (1-2)

Game Two: 87 Astros 12, 87 Cardinals 5
WP: Deshaies (2-0)
LP: Tudor (0-1)
HR: Doran (1), G Davis 2 (4), Caminiti (1)

Game Three: 87 Cardinals 6, 87 Astros 0
WP: D Cox (2-1)
LP: Scott (1-2)

Game Four: 87 Cardinals 8, 87 Astros 3
WP: Magrane (2-0)
LP: Knepper (1-1)
HR: McGee (1)

Game Five: 87 Cardinals 4, 87 Astros 3
WP; Mathews (3-0)
LP: Ryan (1-3)
Save: Dayley (1)

Base hits, suffocating fielding range and stolen bases. That was the recipe for the 1987 Cardinals as they flew past the 87 Astros.

The Cards ran wild in the first inning of the opener against Nolan Ryan. Vince Coleman led off with a walk and promptly stole second and third and scored on a throwing error by catcher Mark Bailey. Later in the inning, Bailey was charged with a bases-loaded passed ball that allowed Ozzie Smith to score and set up Tony Pena's two-run double. Coleman stole a third base in the second inning.

Greg Mathews went the distance, allowing just six hits and one unearned run in the ninth inning.

The Astros had a power surge in Game Two. Glenn Davis hit a pair of home runs, one off John Tudor in the third inning and the second off Ricky Horton in the eighth, and gathered four RBIs in all. Bill Doran and Ken Caminiti each had solo homers off Tudor. Jim Deshaies allowed five runs in the first two innings for the Astros but then shut out the Cards in the next five frames.

The series moved to the Astrodome for Game Three, never to return to Busch Stadium. Danny Cox threw a six-hit shutout, while his mates put up a pair of three-run innings against Mike Scott. Terry Pendleton had three hits, including a double and a triple, and stole a base while scoring twice. Smith and Pena each had two RBIs, and Curt Ford scored two runs.

Willie McGee had the Redbirds' only homer of the series in Game Four, a three-run shot off Bob Knepper in the sixth that made the score 6-0. St. Louis banged out 14 hits for the game.

Game Five was the only competitive contest of the series. Each team scored in the first. Smith doubled for the visitors and scored on McGee's single; Alan Ashby's two-out base in the bottom of the inning scored Gerald Young to tie it. McGee doubled in the third to score Smith and Jack Clark for a two-run lead. Ashby singled and scored in the fourth to make it 3-2 Cardinals, but in the fifth Coleman singled, stole his fifth base of the series and scored on Clark's fly ball to make it a two-run margin again. Doran singled in Young in the seventh to narrow the margin to 4-3.

And then Ken Dayley faced six hitters in the final two innings for six outs and the only save of the series.

Player of the series: Ozzie Smith was 11-for-22 with seven runs and four RBIs with four doubles, three walks and a steal. Plus he was Ozzie Smith with the glove.

Player availability: All Cardinal pitchers will be on full rest for Game 1 of the third round.

Projected rotation: Mathews-D Cox-Magrane-Tudor-(Mathews)-(D Cox)-(Magrane)