Cards take 2-1 NLCS lead after Carlos Beltran exits with knee strain

ST. LOUIS -- If the Cardinals have proved anything this season, it is that they can absorb a loss without flinching.

They made it to the National League Championship Series despite having said goodbye to superstar Albert Pujols, likely Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa and renowned pitching coach Dave Duncan. So they weren't floored when their top hitter left the game early Wednesday.

In fact, it seemed appropriate that after Carlos Beltran left after one inning with a strained left knee, his replacement, Matt Carpenter, would hit the deciding two-run home run in a 3-1 win over the Giants. The defending World Series champions lead this series two games to one because they never have lost their knack for improvising.

"You can't play with guys you don't have. You can't go out there and win with Albert this year. He's not here. You can't worry about Tony not managing, because he's not here," said Cardinals closer Jason Motte, who retired all six batters he faced for a two-inning save in a game that was delayed 3 hours, 28 minutes by rain in the bottom of the seventh.

"You've got to go out there with the nine guys on the field, the 25 guys you've got in this locker room. Nothing else really matters.

"Matt Carpenter didn't go in there going, 'Oh man, Carlos is out. Oh, we're never going to win,' " Motte said. "He went in there and took the same approach he's been taking all year. That's what we do."

Carpenter especially does it against Matt Cain, the Giants' ace and All-Star starter who threw a perfect game this season. Heading into his at-bat in the third, it was Carpenter who was perfect: 4-for-4 lifetime against Cain.

"They were all really tough at-bats,'' Carpenter said. "I was just fortunate enough to have some success."

This time, he withstood an 0-and-2 count, worked it to 2-and-2 and drove the ball 421 feet to rightfield for a 2-1 lead that was enough for Kyle Lohse and four relievers.

"Really, I was just trying to defend the plate, really just trying not to strike out," Carpenter said. "I just got a good pitch to hit."

He did it with a swing taught to him as a child by his dad, Rick, a high school baseball coach in Texas. Rick and his wife drove about nine hours from their home to attend the game. On the Fox telecast, the father/coach said, "We would have walked this far to see him do that."

The Carpenters sure did not expect to see their son in the game so early. No one did. "Sometimes that's good. You don't think about it so much," said Matt, one of four rightfielders the Cardinals used.

Who knows what this Game 3 will mean for the rest of the NLCS? Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had no definitive word about how seriously Beltran hurt a knee bothered by tendinitis when he was a Met early last year. Matheny just said that when Beltran came out in the first inning, "He was not doing well."

The Giants are holding their breath, too, that they get a good start in Game 4 Thursday night from Tim Lincecum, who had not made the original postseason rotation. Barry Zito will start Game 5 and Madison Bumgarner will go to the bullpen. Hunter Pence might drop in a batting order that left 11 runners on base.

So the situation is fluid and unsettled, which is how the Cardinals do their best work. "We know," Carpenter said, "we have guys who can fill voids."