They're back.

Roger Clemens was a legend who had to be beaten Wednesday night. The chilling breeze a condition that had to be ignored. The Game 7 a pressure that had to be overcome.

All came true for the Cardinals, in a 5-2 victory over Houston that finally settled the National League Championship Series and sent St.Louis to its 16th World Series, but first since 1987.

All the stars were properly aligned when the Cardinals needed them most.

It was Scott Rolen's two-run homer in the sixth inning, when Clemens ran out of Hall of Fame magic, that won it.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity right here," Rolen said. "We're not gonna forget this moment."

But the Cardinals survived not just with the might of the league's top batting order, but three of their other favored and more subtle calling cards: defense, execution, pitching.

Jim Edmonds saved two runs in the second inning with a sensational diving catch.

The first St. Louis run came in the third on a perfect suicide squeeze bunt by Jeff Suppan.

Suppan, a member of a starting rotation that was supposedly St. Louis' weak link, worked through six innings, evading Houston's dangerous bats and allowing only three hits.

And the bullpen finished off the Astros, from Kiko Calero to Julian Tavarez to Jason Insringhausen. Houston had one base runner after the fourth inning, and no hits.

All examples of how a team can pile up the best record in baseball.

"The thing that I admire the most is how relentlessly they have competed every day all year long," said manager Tony La Russa. "Very hard to do. You have to be very tough between the ears."

Funny he should mention that. The World Series starts Saturday in Boston, where there'll be another team noted for its toughness.

"It won't be easy," Albert Pujols said of the matchup against the Red Sox. "They got Pedro (Martinez), (Derek) Lowe, (Bronson) Arroyo, (Curt) Schilling, and they've got great hitters. We have to play our best, because they're gonna be ready for us."

It was a series where there was no place like home. The visiting team went 0-7.

And yet each game could have been the other way around, including Thursday, when not until the sixth could the Cardinals get past the wiles and will of Clemens to take the lead.

The moment of truth came when Roger Cedeno led off the sixth with a single and moved to third with two outs after a sacrifice bunt and a Larry Walker tap back to the pitcher.

That left Pujols. The most fearsome of all the Cardinals. Houston manager Phil Garner walked to the mound, chatted with Clemens, walked back.

This was the game Clemens had come back from retirement to pitch. This was the test he had to pass. The Houston lead was 2-1, and wavering. For 43 years, the Astros had been needing to get this out.

It didn't come. Pujols laced a 1-2 pitch into left for a double to tie.

Rolen came next.

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