The St. Louis Cardinals barely had enough time to recover from their NLDS victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates, but they also had the privilege of home field advantage.

The Cardinals took advantage of that privilege on Friday night when the team welcomed the Los Angeles Dodgers to town for Game 1 of the NLCS. Led by veteran Carlos Beltran, the Cardinals edged out the Dodgers in 13 innings to take Game 1, 3-2.

St. Louis finally ended the game that lasted nearly five hours and concluded just 14 hours before the first pitch of Game 2 on Saturday afternoon.

Carl Crawford led the Dodgers on offense with two hits, including a triple, while Zach Greinke went 8 innings on the mound. A combination of five pitchers went on the mound after him while the Cardinals put six more on the mound following Joe Kelly's 6-inning start.

Beltran had three RBI for the Cardinals and also helped end the game in the 13th win his base hit, which came after midnight.

"Understand this is not about me," Beltran said. "In order for a team to win a ballgame, a lot of things need to happen right, the right way. We have to pitch, we have to play defense, and we have to come through offensively."

Despite that Beltran has always been a force to be reckoned with in the postseason, the outfielder and slugger hopes this year will mark the first time he'll be in the World Series.

The first pitch of Game 2 will be at 4:07 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.