PHILADELPHIA • Lance Berkman connected, sending the pitch into some never-never land that hitters don't visit when Roy Halladay is glowering on the mound.

Berkman banged his three-run homer off an auxiliary scoreboard that hung from the second deck in right field, a board that at that very moment displayed Berkman's name and hitting statistics. And Berkman hit the baseball so far and high, he just about hit his own name in the lights. He sent congratulations to himself, and tried to rearrange the expectations of this NLDS.

Suddenly, it was 3-0 Cardinals. They had broken through on the perfect pitching machine, Doc

Halladay. And by doing so, the Cardinals achieved something deemed virtually impossible: they made a raucous, full-throated Philadelphia crowd go silent at Citizens Bank Park.

Up by three runs after Berkman's bomb, the Cardinals had their chance to steal Game 1. And they may never have a better opportunity to hoist a game from the National League's scariest rotation.

The Cardinals couldn't finish what The Puma started, losing 11-6 after the Phillies put on their own power show with five runs worth of long-gone homers from Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez.

The final score was misleading. Even when the Phillies led 11-3, the score was misleading. Let's roll it back; after five innings the Cardinals led 3-1. When you have a lead on Halladay, on the road, with more than half the game in the scorebook, you couldn't ask for much more.

You're in good position to win.

"I have enough experience to know, that's how you beat a good pitcher," Berkman said. "That's exactly how you do it. You get runs early, and then you've got to make them stand up.

"Their offense did a great job of battling back. I know that last year was his first time in the playoffs. But I would dare say that just watching him going forward, see how many times he gives up three or more runs in a playoff game, and I bet it's not very often."

The Cardinals learned a few lessons Saturday night.

• No. 1, if you jump Halladay, it's best not to let him get back up and dust off. After Berkman's boomer, Halladay retired 23 of the final 24 St. Louis hitters, including the last 21, before exiting after eight innings.

"Yeah, he was kind of like a ‘Rocky' movie," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He got mad after he gave up the homer. That ticked him off, and he got going. But he's special. He's everything that people talk about."

• No. 2, don't overdo it with the changeups. Kyle Lohse pitched wonderfully through five innings for the Cardinals, pounding his sinker and keeping the Phils off-balance by tossing in a Frisbee-like changeup that had their lefthanded batters chasing it out of the strike zone.

But in the sixth, when the Phillies went off for five runs, Lohse went with the pitch too often. And when he left two changeups over the plate, Howard busted a three-run homer for a 4-3 lead, then Ibanez cranked a two-run shot.

The Phillies led 6-3. Ballgame. Halladay wasn't going to yield after that. He'd already given the Cardinals their one chance. The Cardinals got to Phillies reliever Michael Stutes for three meaningless runs in the ninth.

• No. 3, manager Tony La Russa waited too long to get Lohse out of there. It probably wouldn't have mattered, but Lohse had to be pulled after losing the eight-pitch conflict with Howard. Lohse was spent. The subsequent single by Shane Victorino and the Ibanez homer could have been avoided.

• No. 4, if the Cardinals pitchers can't do a more effective job against Philadelphia's lefthanded hitters, this will be a slaughter. The box score will show you that the Phillies rolled up a bunch of hits, runs and RBIs in Game 1. That includes the bullpen.

More than anything, my takeaway from Game 1 was this: Halladay vs. Lohse was probably Philadelphia's most favorable pitching matchup of the series, and yet the Cardinals did enough damage to have a three-run lead through five. This game was there. It really was. It was closer than you'd think.

When the San Francisco Giants opened a 4-1 lead on Halladay in Game 1 of last season's NLCS, they brought it home for a 4-3 victory. Granted, the Giants had Tim Lincecum starting in that one, but Lohse has had prior success against many of the Philadelphia hitters.

This was a missed chance by St. Louis.

"Well, I guess you could say that," Berkman said. "But it is what it is. We had an opportunity, and Lohshie was cruising there and throwing a great ballgame. And they just got to him in the one

inning. They won over 100 games this year. They're a great team."

Someone must emerge to slow the Phillies down. Berkman did his share Saturday. And now Albert Pujols must get going; he has one RBI in his past seven games. It would be a bonus to get some offense from Matt Holliday, who is bothered by a hand injury. Any number of hitters can make a difference. There is plenty of offense in the house; that's why the Cardinals led the NL in runs scored in 2011.

The Phillies have fantastic starting pitching. But they also had it last year, and didn't win the World Series. The 1971 Baltimore Orioles had four 20-game winners and didn't win the World Series.

And if the Cardinals can't crack the Philly starters, then it's up to their own starters to pull off the upset. It's happened before. And that's the challenge when Chris Carpenter faces Cliff Lee in Game 2 on Sunday night.

We'll see how Carpenter does pitching on short rest for the first time in his career. La Russa is taking a big gamble with this decision, pushing most of his chips to the center of the table, betting on Carpenter in Game 2.

We know this much: If Carpenter gets a three-run lead, the Cardinals have to win the game. They just have to. They simply cannot fumble another chance to upset the Phillies.

As it turned out, Berkman's home run was about as meaningful as Steven Jackson's 47-yard touchdown run on the Rams' first play against another Philly team, the Eagles, on Sept. 11. It was wonderful, but it was wasted.