Jumping up and down in a close knot of teammates during San Diego's celebration of the NL West championship, Jake Peavy felt a sharp twinge in his rib cage. The Padres' ace tried to pitch in Game 1 of the NL division series anyway, an 8-5 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, and now he will miss the rest of the postseason with a broken rib. An MRI exam at Barnes-Jewish Hospital revealed a fractured eighth rib, and doctors were still trying to determine if the ninth rib was fractured, too. "The next day I just thought I had some bruised ribs, caught an elbow or something," Peavy said. "I never would have imagined it would have been this." Peavy figured to be the Padres' best hope of upsetting the Cardinals in the first round of the best-of-five playoffs. He led the NL in strikeouts, ranked among the league leaders in ERA and easily was the ace of a team that finished only 82-80.