SAN FRANCISCO — They stopped hitting, they couldn't field and their pitching wasn't very good. Other than that, Mr. and Mrs. St. Louis, how did you like how the NLCS turned out? After showing promise and fight in the division series round and through four games against the San Francisco Giants, the Cardinals finally succumbed Monday night, falling 9-0 in Game 7. There will be no repeat champion in Major League Baseball. Cards manager Mike Matheny, while acknowledging his own team's shortcomings, credited the Giants with taking the NL pennant. "They were swinging the bat well and capitalizing on the mistakes that we made," Matheny said. "You have to acknowledge that fact that once a team gets rolling it's sometimes hard to stop them." True enough, but: