ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- Albert Pujols gave the St. Louis Cardinals life with one swing of the bat. Roy Oswalt took it away almost as fast, pitching the Houston Astros into the World Series.

Oswalt allowed four balls out of the infield over seven dominant innings as the Houston Astros defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-1, to win the National League Championship Series in six games.

The Astros avenged last year's NLCS seven-game loss to the Cardinals and advanced to the World Series for the first time in the 44-year history of the franchise. They will travel to face the Chicago White Sox in Game One on Saturday.

"I can't tell you how happy I am," said second baseman Craig Biggio , who has spent all of his 18 seasons with the Astros. "It's been a long time. I'm not greedy, I'm not selfish. I just want to go (to the World Series) one time.

"I can't tell you how happy I am, it's a long time, we've got 5 million people in Houston that are very pumped up right now.

Pujols' three-run homer Monday in the ninth inning off Astros closer Brad Lidge gave the Cardinals a miraculous 5-4 win and one more breath heading home. However, Oswalt (3-0) put the NL's third-highest scoring team back into its slumber in the last game at Busch Stadium, which is being replaced by a new stadium next year.

"The fellow (Oswalt) that pitched today, pitched Game Two, worked us over. ... He pitched outstanding," St. Louis manager Tony La Russa said. "As long as this game's been played, when the pitcher's pitching that way, you can't do much.

"If there's any justice, we did get a win in Houston so we could play a game here. ... This ballpark deserved to play a game (on its final day). I think our ballclub has played tribute to the ballpark all year long."

Working off an overpowering fastball that routinely registered 95 miles per hour, Oswalt yielded a run and three hits. He walked one, hit two batters and struck out six to improve to 3-0 this postseason and 58-4 when Houston provides him a three-run lead.

"Once we got the two-run lead I knew I could go right at them with the fastball, mix some two-seamers coming in, four-seamers away," Oswalt said. "I didn't have to throw many breaking pitches as far as getting behind guys.

"I felt like they are going to have to put three or four hits together to score. It's real hard to (do) if you've got command of your fastball moving it in and out. I felt real good with my two-seamer tonight throwing it in."

The 20-game winner beat the Cardinals and counterpart Mark Mulder , 4-1, in Game Two, allowing a run and five hits in seven innings.

Oswalt, the series MVP, didn't allow a ball out of the infield until Yadier Molina 's flare single to right field in the fifth, an inning in which the umpires bailed out the Astros and helped limit the Cardinals to just one run.

"A big point in the game is when they scored the one run," Houston manager Phil Garner said. "They scored a run in the bottom of the third, we came right back out and put a run right back on the board. To me that stopped any sort of potential momentum on their side of the game."

After Molina's single put runners on first and second with none out, Abraham Nunez hit a ball that bounced off Oswalt. He picked it up and, from his knees, threw wide of second base.

"It changed the momentum, we would have had bases loaded, no one out and instead we had first and third with one out, it's not the same," Molina said. "The umpire said (Everett) tagged me, that he tagged me on my jersey, but he never tagged me."

Umpire Greg Gibson ruled that Houston shortstop Adam Everett , who had to come off the bag toward first base to take the throw, had successfully tagged Molina before he got to the base. Replays clearly showed Molina was not tagged.

John Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice fly to short center field before Oswalt struck out David Eckstein to end the rally.

"He did what we needed him to do, we absolutely had to have that performance and he gave it to us, it was tremendous," Houston first baseman Lance Berkman said.

Chad Qualls pitched a perfect eighth and Dan Wheeler completed the four-hitter with a scoreless ninth. The Cardinals managed just 16 runs in the series. Qualls retired all 14 batters he faced in the series.

"You wish you would have been able to do a little bit more but their pitching was able to just shut us down," said Eckstein, who was 4-for-20 in the series. "They were able to make pitches when they needed to make pitches."

Mulder (1-2) was no match for Oswalt and lost his third straight postseason elimination start. With Oakland, the lefthander lost Game Five of the 2001 ALDS to New York and Game Five of the 2002 ALDS to Minnesota, surrendering 16 hits and six runs in 11 1/3 innings.

"You can go back over everything and kick yourself but there's no point, I just didn't make the pitches," Mulder said. "It's a little disappointing, the fans, the city, they deserve a better effort from me and it's tough. We had a good year but it's not the way you want to end it."

After retiring the first six hitters, the 16-game winner yielded a pair of leadoff hits in the third and a sacrifice before a wild pitch allowed Brad Ausmus to score. Biggio lined a 2-0 pitch into left field for a single and a 2-0 lead.

In the fourth, Jason Lane clobbered his second homer of the series to make it 3-0, which was more than enough for Oswalt.

Mulder gave three runs, six hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. He threw two wild pitches and delivered just 10-of-21 first-pitch strikes.

After St. Louis sliced the deficit to 3-1 in the fifth, Adam Everett 's perfectly executed squeeze play in the sixth and Morgan Ensberg 's two-out RBI single in the seventh increased the edge to 5-1.