ST. LOUIS – Mike Matheny, Edgar Renteria, and the St. Louis Cardinals can do it with singles, doubles, and triples, too.

After tying a postseason record with five home runs in the opener, the Cardinals stayed in the ballpark for Game 2 last night. The result was the same: an 8-3 win over the Dodgers.

Following a sweep at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals will head to Dodger Stadium with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five NL playoff series. The third game will be Saturday night, with Matt Morris trying to wrap it up against Jose Lima.

Milton Bradley, Shawn Green, and Jayson Werth homered for the Dodgers, who lost their eighth straight playoff game and remained winless in the postseason since beating Oakland in the 1988 World Series. Los Angeles dropped to 0-5 at St. Louis this year.

The Cardinals combined eight singles, two doubles, and one triple, and the closest they came to a home run was a drive to the wall by winning pitcher Dan Haren. Seven of their eight runs scored with two outs as St. Louis used a small-ball approach to chase Jeff Weaver in the fifth inning.

Less prominent players in St. Louis’s high-powered lineup were largely responsible with the 6-7-8 slots in the order going a combined 8-for-10 with five RBIs and five runs scored.

Matheny, the no. 8 hitter, became the first Cardinals player to get four RBI in a division series game with two-run singles in the fifth and seventh.

Renteria, the no. 6 hitter, was 3-for-4. His two-out, go-ahead single was the key blow in a three-run fifth that broke a tie and put St. Louis ahead 6-3.

Reggie Sanders was 3-for-3 and scored twice in the no. 7 slot.

The Cardinals overcome a shaky outing by 15-game winner Jason Marquis, making his first career postseason start. He couldn’t hold a 3-1 second-inning lead, allowing homers to Werth in the first and to Green and Bradley on consecutive at-bats to start the fourth.

The homer by Bradley, the Dodgers’ troubled right fielder who had a run-in with a Los Angeles reporter on the off day Wednesday, was a drive estimated at 461 that ricocheted off the right-field scoreboard.

Marquis lasted only 3 1 /3 innings – his shortest outing of the year – and allowed three homers for the second time of the year. Haren worked two scoreless innings, allowing one hit with three strikeouts. Marquis was done after a one out walk to David Ross in the fourth.

Weaver made his first career postseason start and endured his second straight shaky postseason outing, giving up six runs on eight hits in 4 2 /3 innings. Last year, he was with the Yankees and surrendered a 12th-inning, game-winning homer to Alex Gonzalez of the Marlins in the pivotal Game 4 of the World Series.

Weaver worked around two walks in the first when he struck out Jim Edmonds for the final out. He had another shaky inning in the second and the Cardinals capitalized, with the first run scoring on Weaver’s wild pickoff throw to first. With two outs, Tony Womack hit an RBI triple off the right-field wall and Larry Walker followed with a run-scoring double.