Dodgers' Randy Wolf is ready for his debut

The Dodgers did something Wednesday night they had never previously done.

They beat Chris Carpenter.

The Dodgers were right. This was a new season.

They looked like anything but the team that crawled its way to the division title last week, slapping around Carpenter for four runs and nine hits in five innings on their way to a 5-3 victory that gave them a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five National League division series.

Matt Kemp hit a two-run home run in the first inning. Andre Ethier was hit by a pitch on his left foot in the third and later scored on a single by Casey Blake. Rafael Furcal drove in Ronnie Belliard in the fifth on a sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers were on their way.

"I don't know what to say," said James Loney, who was two for four with a walk. "A lot of people try to dissect it, but we just go out there and see what happens."

That Randy Wolf lasted only 3 2/3 innings in his playoff debut was inconsequential.

The Ryan Ludwick fly ball that dropped between Belliard and Kemp in the first inning for a run-scoring single? Also of no importance.

The ball that got past Kemp in the ninth inning? Bah.

The same was true of the 16 men the Dodgers left on base or how they were two for 15 with men in scoring position.

So much for the talk of Cardinals having two aces and the Dodgers having none.

A leading candidate to win the Cy Young Award, Carpenter went into the game with a 5-0 record and 2.20 earned-run average against the Dodgers. He beat them twice this season, limiting them to three runs over 15 innings in two starts.

He didn't look like the same pitcher on this night.

"I don't know if I could have thrown a better pitch for him to hit out," Carpenter said of the down-the-middle pitch he served up to Kemp. "That's where he wants the ball."

Today, the Dodgers will face the Cardinals' co-ace, Adam Wainwright.

Manager Joe Torre's players had a look about them that differed from their end-of-the-season demeanor.

The same players who continued to laugh during the five-game losing streak that delayed their coronation as the NL West champions last week suddenly weren't laughing.

"This is the time to fight now," Ethier said. "You're going to do what it takes to win. It's evident in the regular season, when we had a big opponent that game -- the Giants, the Rockies, it was a little bit more business-like."