ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa wasn't sure if Jason Schmidt was excellent or outstanding. Both would have applied.

Schmidt carried a shutout into the eighth inning and Rich Aurilia homered twice as the San Francisco Giants earned a two games to none lead in the National League Championship Series with a 4-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Robb Nen recorded the last four outs for San Francisco, which overcame a rare two-strikeout performance by Barry Bonds and accomplished a franchise first by winning the first two games of a postseason series on the road.

"This is one of the toughest stadiums to play in as an opposing team," Giants manager Dusty Baker said of Busch. "So it's great to go home, 2-0. But we are only halfway there."

The wild card winners return home to Pacific Bell Park, where they can advance to the World Series for the first time since 1989 with two wins in the next three games of the best-of-seven set.

St. Louis, which endured the death of pitcher Darryl Kile and Hall of Fame broadcaster Jack Buck but still earned the NL Central title, must win four of five to make it to the World Series for the first time since 1987.

"It's been a really hard year," La Russa said. "This is a hard start, but I know how ready we'll be when we go to San Francisco."

Game Three is Saturday.

The only good news for the Cardinals is they won't have to face Schmidt (1-1).

The righthander overpowered the Cardinals with a fastball that often reached 98 miles an hour. He also mixed in a splitter and curve in allowing just a run and four hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.

"It was just an overpowering performance, one of the best performances I've seen one of our pitchers throw all year," Aurilia said.

It was only the second career postseason start for Schmidt, who was bombed in a Game Three Division Series loss to the Atlanta Braves. He was 1-5 in his previous eight starts against St. Louis.

"I just tried to go out there and throw strikes more than anything," said Schmidt, who threw 81 of 118 pitches for strikes. "It wasn't anything special. Just kept it simple and went after guys."

La Russa thought it was special, so much so that he needed help to define the perfomance, opening his postgame news conference by asking which word would be most appropriate - excellent or outstanding.

When someone said excellent, La Russa replied, "OK, he was excellent."

Schmidt did not allow a hard-hit ball until pinch hitter Eduardo Perez ended his shutout bid two outs into the eighth with a solo homer. Schmidt was lifted for lefthander Scott Eyre but already left his impression on La Russa.

"He's a huge talent and he's been pitching better and better," the Cardinals' manager said. "We really expected him to throw well."

Aurilia took care of the offense, golfing a low slider over the left field wall with one out in the second to open the scoring. He added a two-run shot in the fifth off a hanging curveball from Woody Williams (0-1), hitting it to the same spot.

"I think I hit it in exactly the same spot," said Aurilia, who matched Bonds for the team lead with four postseason homers. "I think they told me the same (fan) got both of them."

Aurilia joined two elite groups of shortstops, becoming just the third in playoff history to homer twice in a game. He also matched the record for RBI by a shortstop in one postseason by increasing his total to 11.

It had been a frustrating season for Aurilia, who hit .324 with 37 homers and 97 RBI in 2001 but underwent elbow surgery and was limited to a .257 average with 15 home runs and 61 RBI this year.

"The way I hit the ball tonight out of the park is the way I'm used to hitting the ball," he said. "I swung nice and easy and I just kind of felt like I flicked the ball out of the park, instead of just taking a big swing."

Aurilia helped pick up the slack for Bonds, who has put his postseason failures in the past but struck out twice for just the fifth time in 150 games this year.

Starting for the first time in three weeks because of a lingering muscle strain in his left side, Williams made only two mistakes in six innings but took the loss. He gave up three runs and six hits with a walk and seven strikeouts.

The Cards closed within 3-1 on Perez's eighth-inning homer that chased Schmidt. But Nen stranded a runner by getting the final out in the eighth and worked around a double in the ninth for his fourth save of the postseason.

San Francisco added an insurance run in the ninth when Ramon Martinez - who a half-inning earlier replaced Aurilia in a double switch - dropped a suicide squeeze. Baker said it was the first one he called in five years.

The Cardinals had their best chance to take control in the third. But with runners at second and third, Fernando Vina flied out to shallow left-center and Kenny Lofton threw out J.D. Drew at the plate to end the inning.

"If we don't get that guy out, it could be a whole different ballgame," Schmidt said. "Momentum could shift and everything."