ST. LOUIS – The Cardinals and Astros gave everyone what they wanted – a slugfest.

Albert Pujols homered early, Larry Walker delivered three key hits and the St. Louis Cardinals withstood four Houston shots to outlast the Astros 10-7 last night in Game 1 of the NL championship series.

Slumping Scott Rolen and Jim Edmonds also contributed, and winning pitcher Woody Williams even helped out with a big double for the league’s top-hitting team.

Together, that was enough to withstand homers by Carlos Beltran, Lance Berkman, Jeff Kent, and Mike Lamb.

And it was a significant win: The last 11 teams to win the opener of the NLCS have gone on to reach the World Series.

The Cardinals and Astros took turns whacking shots all over Busch Stadium, with Walker finishing a home run shy of becoming the first player in postseason history to hit for the cycle.

Now, unheralded Pete Munro gets his chance to try to slow down the team that led the majors with 105 victories. A guy who started the season in the minors with Minnesota, Munro will start Game 2 for Houston against 15-game winner Matt Morris tonight.

Houston manager Phil Garner will be watching The Weather Channel overnight. The forecast is for showers, and the Astros would certainly welcome it. A rainout would allow them to bring back ace Roger Clemens in Game 2 and then use 20-game winner Roy Oswalt back home in Game 3.

Edmonds’s three-run double capped a six-run burst in the sixth. Chad Qualls wound up as the losing pitcher, in relief of Brandon Backe.

Jason Isringhausen got the final out for a save. Rolen, bothered by a strained left calf, was 0-for-14 in this postseason before lining a single that made it 4-4 in the fifth.

Williams’s one-out double got the inning going, and Walker later snapped his bat on an RBI double. The ball looped to left while the shattered barrel flew into the Cardinals’ first-base dugout and sent Edmonds scurrying.

For all the big hits, the Cardinals strung together a bunch of little ones to break it open in the sixth.

Reggie Sanders got an infield single and pinch-hitter Roger Cedeno’s groundout put St. Louis ahead. Tony Womack and Walker added RBI singles, another run scored on shortstop Jose Vizcaino’s bounced throw, and Edmonds’ double made it 10-4.

Berkman hit a two-run homer in the eighth and Lamb added a solo homer in the ninth. Both teams came out swinging from their heels.

Craig Biggio led off the game with a sharp single past Williams’s head and Beltran followed with a laser over the right-field wall for his fifth homer of this postseason.

Before the sellout crowd of 52,323 could get too antsy, the Cardinals took their turn and quickly tied the score.

After Womack lined out, Walker hit a drive that seemed to fool Berkman, and the ball eluded the right fielder’s awkward lunge for a triple.

Pujols was up next, and he reached for an outside pitch and sent an opposite-field shot into the Cardinals’ bullpen in right. The St. Louis star’s third homer of this postseason was against one of his favorite victims – Backe. It was Pujols’s third home run in only six lifetime at-bats against him.

When Edmonds lined a two-out single, it looked as if it might be a short night for Backe. But somehow, the converted outfielder from the Tampa Bay system quickly settled into a groove and struck out six of the next eight batters.