SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- The St. Louis Cardinals picked up against Woody Williams and the San Diego Padres right where they left off in Busch Stadium.

Reggie Sanders and David Eckstein helped break open the game in the second inning against their former teammate and Matt Morris tossed six strong innings as the Cardinals completed the sweep of their National League Division Series sweep with a 7-4 triumph over the San Diego Padres .

The Cardinals, who never trailed in the series, scored in the first inning on an RBI double by Albert Pujols .

"We got down every game, dug ourselves an early hole that we couldn't get out of," San Diego manager Bruce Bochy said. "Every game we came back. We got the momentum tonight, had the right guys up, but they made the pitches when they had to.

"We didn't play well in St. Louis, I thought we beat ourselves early. Today, they got the big lead and we couldn't come back. I'm disappointed we couldn't have played better and won some games."

An inning later, Eckstein belted a two-run homer and Sanders plated two with a double to knock out Williams, who was tagged for five runs and six hits in 1 2/3 innings. The righthander was 45-22 in four seasons with the Cardinals from 2001-04.

"I was trying to get a pitch I could hit for extra bases," Eckstein said. "Fortunately, I hit it and it went out of the park. It was 2-0 and I don't swing much there. I was looking for a pitch out over the plate and I got a fastball middle-in and put a good swing on it."

St. Louis scored a first-inning run in each of the first two contests. It opened an 8-0 lead in the opener, built a 4-0 advantage in Game Two on Thursday and a 7-0 edge Saturday.

"It's always important to score first," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "Then we put up a few crooked numbers. If you pitch and play defense, you should have a chance to win.

"These games were all pretty similar. They rallied the last part of the games. I had to look at the scorecard to make sure we won. The series was closer than the 3-0 margin indicated."

Morris yielded two runs, five hits and three walks, striking out four as St. Louis advanced to the NL Championship Series for the fourth time in six years. The 14-game winner, who was just 1-5 all-time during the postseason, carried a no-hitter into the fifth.

"It gives the pitchers a ton of confidence," Morris said. "When you put up runs early off a guy like Woody, you've got to capitalize. I was able to put up some zeroes and keep the lead and turn things over to the bullpen."

But Joe Randa led off the inning with a double and scored on a single by Eric Young , who came home on a base hit by Mark Loretta two batters later.

Chris Carpenter worked six scoreless innings in the opener and Mark Mulder followed by allowing just one run in 6 1/3 frames. Conversely, San Diego ace Jake Peavy was tagged for eight runs in 4 1/3 innings and Game Two starter Pedro Astacio yielded four runs in four frames.

"Any time you can gets runs early and give the pitcher a cushion, it makes it a lot easier," Morris said. "We were able to do that all series and hand it off to the bullpen with a big enough lead to win."

The poor pitching performances went a long way in adding to San Diego's postseason struggles. It has lost seven straight playoff games, four straight home contests and six straight against the Cardinals.

"There was some incentive to try and prove people wrong," Loretta said. "We wanted to have a good showing, but we didn't. That is disappointing. I like to look at the journey rather than the destination. There were a lot of ups and downs, but it ended on a bad note."

"(The Cardinals) are a better team, whether we had won five more games in the regular season or 10 more games, it wouldn't have mattered."

The Cardinals' bullpen continued to have their problems as Brad Thompson surrendered a home run to Dave Roberts in the seventh and Ramon Hernandez blasted a shot off Julian Tavarez an inning later. Jason Isringhausen , who got the final four outs, struck out Brian Giles and induced a comebacker by Ryan Klesko with runners on first and second to close out the game.

St. Louis relievers surrendered eight runs in 8 1/3 innings in the series.

Sanders set an NLDS record with 10 RBI.

"Sanders just killed us," Bochy said. "He had a big series, drove in a lot of runs."

St. Louis will open the NLCS on Wednesday against the winner of the series between Atlanta and Houston. The Astros posted a 7-3 victory Saturday to take a two games to one lead.