ST. LOUIS - The Houston Astros started the season with high hopes, confident their pitching package of Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt, Andy Pettitte and Wade Miller could carry them a long way.

Now, coming off the first postseason series win in team history, Houston heads into the NL championship series - with Brandon Backe and Pete Munro set to start the first two games against the St. Louis Cardinals.

With no time to rest, Clemens and Oswalt have been aced out of pitching at Busch Stadium. Pettitte and Miller are long gone, lost to injuries.

"We don't feel handicapped in any way whatsoever," Astros manager Phil Garner said Tuesday, a day before Game 1. "This is what it took for us to get here. This is what we'll go with."

Backe, a converted outfielder from the Tampa Bay system, and Munro, cut by Minnesota in June, began the season in the minors. They combined to win nine games for the Astros.

"We're not going to fall into the trap tomorrow, because Clemens or Oswalt is not pitching, that we've got some big advantage," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "They'll have a legitimate starting pitcher, a legitimate bullpen, a legitimate club behind them."

Still, St. Louis slugger Larry Walker was a little curious, especially about Munro. With batting practice wiped out by rain, the Cardinals were talking, and were certain Munro was starting the opener.

"I just know he's pitching the first game," Walker said. "I don't even know if I ever have faced him, really."

Walker had, going 1-for-3 with a double.

Garner leaned on Clemens and Oswalt to get the Astros past the Braves in the first round of the playoffs. Both pitched on three days' rest, with Oswalt winning the decisive Game 5 in Atlanta on Monday night.

Clemens and Oswalt each went 2-0 against the Cardinals this year. They'll face them again this weekend.

Backe will pitch on three days' rest for the first time in his career when the wild-card Astros take on the team that led the majors with 105 victories. He'll be opposed by Woody Williams, who grew up in Houston.

"I've always been an Astro fan. It's a team I always rooted for my whole life," Williams said. "Now I have an opportunity to be the one that sends them home on a sour note. It's kind of bittersweet for me."

For his family, too.

"I have left tickets for one of my family member's brother before. He's sitting there cheering for the Astros," he said. "So next time, I put him way up at the top. That was when I was pitching."

Chances are the matchup between NL Central opponents will not generate the kind of heat the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry produces in the ALCS. Cardinals reliever Steve Kline admits that much.

"We'll probably always get the day games. That's just the way things are going to be," he said. "But if we can this series, then we'll have to play one of those guys and we can show what we can do in prime time."

Backe contends "we've had some words exchanged every now and then," but the Astros and Cardinals have kept things relatively civil.

The one squabble they had came early in April 2002, when the Astros arrived at Busch Stadium and saw a sign that proclaimed the Cardinals co-champions of the Central Division.

Both teams went 93-69 the previous year, but Houston won the season series 9-8 and the Cardinals were the wild-card team in the playoffs.

The Astros finished 10-8 against the Cardinals this season, with Houston sweeping a three-game series at home in late September. Backe got one of those key wins, part of a 5-3 season when he didn't reach the rotation until August.

Backe won Game 3 against the Braves, throwing six effective innings. Munro finished 4-7 and has not pitched since Oct. 1.

"I think the adrenaline's going to take away any soreness or whatever I have," Backe said

Then again, pitchers with less experience have occasionally excelled at this time of the year.

The fewest regular-season wins by a Game 1 starter in any postseason series is three, by Seattle's Bob Wolcott in the 1995 ALCS, the Elias Sports Bureau said. Facing a fearsome Cleveland lineup, the rookie walked the first three hitters, escaped the jam without allowing a run and went on to win.

Backe has been in big games, too - although not always in baseball. Growing up in Galveston, he led his team to the state football championship.

Garner is hoping Backe's experience of playing under "Friday Night Lights" will help him Wednesday night.

"You know what high school football's like in Texas. That's a big deal," Garner said.