"The Cardinals concluded a once-a-decade resurrection Friday night by winning a once-a-generation matchup.

A game that extended his team's improbable season also burnished Chris Carpenter's reputation as his three-hit domination of the Philadelphia Phillies offered most of what mattered in the Cardinals' 1-0 elimination of the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 5 of a riveting NL division series.

Carpenter, the key piece in manager Tony La Russa's pitching gambit for the series, followed his win on the final day of the regular season with a shutout on the final day of an unforgettable series.

"The magnitude of this game was the same as it's been for the last month and a half with our ballclub and for me," Carpenter said. "The magnitude of two Wednesdays ago in Houston was enormous. If I go out and I get shelled and we lose, I have no chance, just like tonight. We've been dealing with that the whole time."

Now the Milwaukee Brewers must deal with the Cardinals, the team they beat by six games for the NL Central crown, but a very different team from the one that found itself 10½ games off the wild-card lead Aug. 25.

"I'm not surprised by anything anymore," offered reliever Mitch Boggs. "I mean, we were dead in August. Now look where we are."

One of the few remaining ties to the Cardinals' 2006 World Series title, Carpenter pushed them into their 10th NL championship series by taking down a team that spent six months building the game's best record atop a foundation of relentless starting pitching.

La Russa had a sense of the moment even before the game when he offered, "That is part of history. We want to extend it."

Friday's drama represented only the third 1-0 clincher in postseason history. The most recent involved the 10-inning Game 7 duel between the Minnesota Twins' Jack Morris and Atlanta Braves' John Smoltz in the 1991 World Series.

A one-win pitcher this season until June 23, Carpenter outgunned the first pillar of the Phillies' rotation, reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay, by allowing only one runner to third base and making his offense's first-inning flurry stand up."