Cardinals sell playoff ticket allotment in two hours

ST. LOUIS – It took about two hours Monday for the N.L. Central champion St. Louis Cardinals to sell out all their playoff games leading up to the World Series.

Tickets for the division series and the National League Championship Series went on sale at 9 a.m. Monday and were sold out by around 11.

World Series tickets will be sold later.

For the first time, playoff tickets were not sold at the Busch Stadium ticket office or at other ticket outlets; they were sold online through the Cardinals’ Web site and by phone. The team said problems with long lines and new stadium construction prompted the change. The new Busch Stadium is being built next to the existing ballpark, which will be demolished at the end of this season.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many tickets were sold. The team had expected to have about 14,000 tickets available for each division series game and about 13,000 for each NLCS game.

The Cardinals became the first team to clinch a playoff berth after beating the Chicago Cubs 6-1 Thursday. At 95-56, they have baseball’s best record and will have home-field advantage in all N.L. playoff games. The American League team will have home-field advantage in the World Series because the A.L. won the All-Star Game.