The St Louis Cardinals accomplished their goal in the first two games of the National League Championship Series – earning a split in Milwaukee – and now send ace Chris Carpenter to the mound tonight at home in Game 3.
If the Cardinals can sweep three games at home they would move on to the World Series – but in a match-up of two intense rivals who have played each other evenly all season, no one is counting on that.
"It's a pretty evenly-matched series," Lance Berkman, the Cardinals outfielder, said. "I would imagine that this thing is a long way from being over."
The Brewers will also have their ace, Yovani Gallardo, on the mound tonight. He was 17-10 in the regular season and beat Arizona twice in the opening round of the play-offs, allowing one run each game. He has 14 strikeouts and only three walks post-season.
Carpenter was only 11-9 during the regular season, but he shut out the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0 on only three hits in the deciding game of the first-round series.
The Cardinals evened things up with a 12-3 win over the Brewers on Monday night, thanks to Albert Pujols, who was four for five with a home run, three doubles and five runs batted in.
Things are looking a lot brighter for the Cardinals than after they lost a big lead in the first game of the series. "If you want to make it a competitive series, winning a game here, that's a big step in the right direction," Tony La Russa, the Cardinals manager, said.
Despite the one-sided loss, Milwaukee remained confident. "It wasn't joyful," Prince Fielder said. "You've just got to deal with it and move on."
Until Monday, Pujols had not been producing runs in this year's play-offs. He had only one RBI in the Cardinals' first six post-season games.
"You learn from the mistakes that you made," Pujols said. "I turned that page, knowing today was a new day."
Ron Roenicke, the Brewers manager, of course, has seen such things from Pujols before.
"The last time we saw them at their place he was swinging the bat just like this," Roenicke said. "You can't make mistakes to him. You have to hit spots. You have to keep it down in the zone. He doesn't miss too many mistakes."
It was a short and ugly start by Milwaukee's Shaun Marcum, who gave up five runs on seven hits in four innings and took the loss.
