ST. LOUIS - Scott Rolen, Albert Pujols and the rest of the St. Louis Cardinals did exactly what they expected. Facing a pair of unheralded Houston pitchers, they won both times.

Now, it's up to Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt to pull the Astros back into the NL championship series.

On a cold, wet, miserable night, no one in the sellout crowd at Busch Stadium left complaining Thursday. Not after Rolen hit two home runs, combining with Pujols for back-to-back shots in the eighth inning for a 6-4 victory and a 2-0 lead in a series dominated by sluggers.

A winning night, and a memorable one, too. For the first time in their long, proud postseason history, the Cardinals connected for consecutive home runs.

"We open at home, you earn that advantage, it's nice to get the two," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "But, I mean, there's nobody whooping it up in that dugout or that clubhouse."

After winning games that converted outfielder Brandon Backe and journeyman Pete Munro started against them, the hard part lies ahead for St. Louis, beginning Saturday at Minute Maid Park.

Clemens, coming off an 18-4 season that made him a top Cy Young candidate, starts Game 3 against Jeff Suppan. Then comes Oswalt, who led the league with 20 wins.

"Those guys have been our horses all year and we'll turn to them now and ask them to do what they've been doing all year, and that's win for us," Astros manager Phil Garner said.

The Astros will be glad to get back to the place where they've won 19 of their last 20 games. And the retractable roof guarantees good conditions, something St. Louis was missing.

The weather was awful all evening, with drizzle delaying the start for almost a half-hour and lasting through the final pitch. Temperatures fell through the 40s and a light wind made it feel even worse.

The hitters, however, didn't seem to mind.

Larry Walker also homered for St. Louis, which scored all of its runs on homers. Carlos Beltran hit his sixth home run of this postseason and Morgan Ensberg also connected in helping the wild-card Astros take a 3-0 lead.

"The good thing is this isn't a two-game series," Garner said. "We're not where we want to be certainly, but we'll work this thing out."

With the score 4-all, Pujols led off the eighth with a home run and the recently slumping Rolen followed with another shot to left field.

Nursing a strained left calf, Rolen was 0-for-14 in this year's playoffs before an RBI single in Game 1.

"I don't know what my postseason numbers are, but tonight I contributed to help us win a ballgame," the All-Star third baseman said.