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Cards eye World Series berth in Milwaukee

Oct 16, 2011 - 2:36 PM (Sports Network) - The Milwaukee Brewers head home hoping to stave off elimination when they play Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park.

The Brewers owned the best home mark in baseball this season, going 57-24 and that has transferred over here to the postseason, as they have won four of their five games in front of their fans.

"I have a lot of confidence in our guys," Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. "They are confident at home. We can win two ballgames at home. We are going to have to play a lot better baseball than what we have played here."

However, St. Louis, which needed all 162 games of the regular season to nail down a playoff spot, now finds itself one game away from reaching the World Series for the 18th time in team history and the first time since winning an improbable championship in 2006.

The Cards grabbed a 3-2 series lead on Friday thanks to another solid effort from their bullpen and four Milwaukee errors. Brewers third baseman Jerry Hairston's fielding error in the second inning allowed two key runs to score, and St. Louis went on to win 7-1.

Yadier Molina, Jaime Garcia and Albert Pujols each had an RBI, while Matt Holliday delivered the knockout blow with a two-run double in the eighth for the Cardinals, who bounced back from Thursday's 4-2 loss.

"Well, the errors are a part of the game, and I know the shortstops put on a clinic in this series and it just shows you, they are not routine balls, the ball is jumping all over the place," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. "And competition that's this close, if you can take advantage of one of those or two of those, it could be the difference."

Garcia lasted just 4 2/3 innings in the start for St. Louis, which hasn't had a starter go past five frames in the first five games of this series. Garcia only gave up one run on seven hits to go along with five strikeouts.

Octavio Dotel (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win. Lance Lynn, Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Motte also did not allow a run.

Both teams have had to rely on their bullpens this series, as Cardinals' relievers are 2-0 with a 1.66 ERA in 21 2/3 innings over the first five games. while the Brewers' pen has given up nine runs in 15 1/3 frames of LCS play.

But the Cardinals will have to beat the statistics if they want to advance to their third World Series in the last eight seasons. No team has ever won a postseason series when their starters failed to go more than five innings in any of the first five games.

But, teams taking a 3-2 lead on the road for the last two games of a seven- game series have won the series 26 out of 43 times in major league history, including seven out of 10 times in the NLCS. The last time the Cardinals were in the NLCS in 2006, they took a 3-2 lead to the Mets, lost Game 6 and finished off the series in seven.

Zack Greinke (1-1) gave up five runs -- two earned -- on seven hits over 5 2/3 innings to take the loss for Milwaukee, which fell to 4-12 all time on the road in the postseason.

Corey Hart knocked in the lone run for the Brewers, who will turn to Shaun Marcum this evening.

Marcum, though, has followed up an awful September with an even worse October, as he has lost both of his postseason starts, while pitching to a 12.46 ERA. The poor showing here in the playoffs comes on the heels of a 5.17 ERA over his final month after going 11-5 with a 3.24 ERA heading into September.

"He has supported us from day one," Marcum said when asked if he was surprised Roenicke decided to stick with him in this do-or-die situation. "It's nice to have that kind of support."

Marcum lasted just four innings of his Game 2 assignment against the Cardinals, allowing five runs and seven hits. He had given up seven runs in 4 2/3 innings of his NLDS start against Arizona.

"We expect a real good game from Shaun," said Roenicke, who could have opted to use ace Yovani Gallardo on short rest.

St. Louis, meanwhile, will rely on righty Edwin Jackson, who opposed Marcum in Game 2, but did not factor in the decision. He allowed two runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings of that one, a 12-3 Cardinals win.

"There isn't one person in here who wouldn't want to take the ball," Jackson said. "We're going to go out and have some fun. That's what we've been doing the whole second half. We're going to leave it all out and take our chances of winning the ballgame."

Jackson was a big factor down the stretch for the Cards and went 5-2 with a 3.79 ERA in 13 games (12 starts) after being acquired from Toronto.

"He's a good pitcher," Molina said. "We know they play good at home, but we have confidence that we can beat them over there."

Only twice since the addition of the wild card have two teams from the National League Central met in the NLCS. It last happened in 2005, when the Astros knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs.