Pirates Break With Past by Playing Jeff Roberson/Associated Press A. J. Burnett after Carlos Beltran homered in the third. Burnett allowed seven runs in his worst playoff outing since the 2009 World Series, when he was a Yankee. LOUIS - If Tuesday night was a raucous party, with Pittsburgh hosting Cincinnati in the Pirates" first playoff game in 21 years, the St. Louis Cardinals countered Thursday with stately tradition. Clydesdales clip-clopped around the warning track before the game, and Busch Stadium was awash in its familiar sea of red. The Cardinals then flexed their muscle on the field, battering the Pirates, 9-1, to take the first game of their best-of-five National League division series. St. Louis, making its 10th appearance in the playoffs in the last 14 seasons, knocked out 10 hits and scored an N.L.D.S.-record seven third-inning runs. The Cardinals were led by two postseason veterans, a commodity in short supply in the Pirates" dugout, with Carlos Beltran hitting a three-run homer to open the scoring and a nearly unhittable Adam Wainwright pitching seven innings of one-run ball. "We never undervalue experience," Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said. It comes back to a pretty simple approach: they're going to do what they know is best and what they've been doing all season long. The underdog Pirates had captured the imagination of baseball fans across the country by ending their long playoff drought and reaching the division series with a 6-2 win over the Reds on Tuesday night. But in Game 1 here, they committed three errors, mustered only four hits and generally looked more like the bumbling Pittsburgh teams of the last two decades than the squad that won 94 games during the regular season. "It was a rough Game 164," Pirates Manager Clint Hurdle said. A nightmarish third inning doomed the Pirates" chances Thursday. A. J. Burnett, the Pirates" starter, walked Wainwright to start the inning, and Matt Carpenter followed with a single. That brought up Beltran, who entered the game with a 1.250 on-base plus slugging percentage in the playoffs, the best mark in baseball history. He turned on a fastball and blasted it into the second deck in right field. The home run, the 15th of Beltran's career in the postseason, seemed to shock the Pirates out of their October glee like a cold, hard slap. After Matt Holliday doubled to right-center field, Burnett completed his self-destruction. He hit Matt Adams and walked Yadier Molina and Jon Jay to force in a run. He then allowed a two-run single to David Freese, and an errant throw from right fielder Marlon Byrd allowed Jay to score as well. With that, Burnett was done for the game. Two weeks ago, Hurdle mapped out his starting rotation to ensure that Burnett would start Game 1 of the division series. On a team on which only six players had postseason experience, Burnett had two World Series rings and seven playoff starts, even if his postseason earned run average exceeded 5.00. "That's how important it was to us," Hurdle said. We planned it out a while ago. Burnett, though, did not make it out of the third inning, allowing six hits, four walks and seven earned runs in his worst playoff outing since Game 5 of the 2009 World Series, when he played for the Yankees. "My sinker was cutting, and I had no hook," Burnett said. I was anxious. Wainwright pitched like a cool veteran. His devastating curveball - the same pitch that froze Beltran, then a Met, to end Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series - left Pirates hitters either flailing or buckling. Wainwright did not allow a base runner until the fourth inning and struck out nine, his only blemish being a solo home run by Pedro Alvarez. "He had a lot of swing and misses on his curveball," the Pirates" Andrew McCutchen said. If we were to let go of that pitch, it might have been a different ballgame. The Cardinals and the Pirates, N.L. Central Division rivals, were evenly matched during the regular season. The Pirates won 10 of their 19 meetings but lost six of nine at Busch Stadium. What appeared to separate the teams most was recent history. While the Pirates are strangers to meaningful autumn games, the Cardinals have won 11 World Series - including the 2006 and 2011 titles - and make regular appearances on baseball's biggest stage. Hurdle had talked at length about the legacy of winning and the atmosphere his team would find in St. Louis. "It drips with tradition, with respect, with integrity, with professionalism," he said. Those qualities were on display again Thursday. Freese made a diving catch in the third inning to rob Clint Barmes of an extra-base hit. Later in the game, Cardinals reliever Carlos Martinez made a terrific play by throwing out Russell Martin on a roller up the third-base line. Meanwhile, a Barmes throwing error helped the Cardinals score their eighth run, and McCutchen overran a ground ball in center field that led to St. Louis's ninth run. Before the game, Matheny was asked about the momentum the Pirates seemed to be riding. "We don't spend a lot of time thinking about them," he said. After a Game 1 blowout, the Pirates will have plenty to think about themselves.