Mussina struck out four and gave up five hits in 5 2-3 innings. Setup man Tom Gordon got four outs, and Rivera worked the ninth to extend his record to 33 postseason saves in 37 opportunities.
National League
AP, St. Louis, Missouri
Reggie Sanders hit a grand slam and set an National League division series record with six RBIs Tuesday, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to an 8-5 victory over the San Diego Padres in their playoff series opener.
Chris Carpenter pitched six scoreless innings before leaving the game with an 8-0 lead, enabling the Cardinals to withstand San Diego's late-game surge.
The Padres scored once in the seventh, another in the eighth and three in the ninth, when it loaded the bases with two outs before Jason Isringhausen struck out Ramon Hernandez.
St. Louis' Mark Mulder is scheduled to oppose San Diego's Pedro Astacio in Game 2 of the best-of-five series on Thursday.
Jim Edmonds helped out St. Louis with a home run, double and single. Eric Young had a pinch-hit homer in the eighth for San Diego and an RBI groundout in the ninth.
The 37-year-old Sanders had been on pace for the first 30-homer, 30-steal season of his Major League Baseball career before missing 54 games after breaking his right leg in an outfield collision with Edmonds in mid-July.
Sanders rediscovered his stroke in the final week, driving in 10 runs in the last six games, homering three times in the final four games.
His two-run single off the glove of diving first baseman Mark Sweeney put the Cardinals ahead 4-0 in the third, and his grand slam into the left-field seats on a 3-0 fastball knocked out starting pitcher Jake Peavy in the fifth.
Peavy pitched with an injury that worsened in the third and was taken to a hospital after lasting only 4 1-3 innings. An MRI showed one broken rib on his right side and the possibility of a second break. A Padres spokesman said the injury would take four to six weeks to heal.
RSS