ST. LOUIS — The final result wasn’t stunning. How the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers got there was.
With their two aces barely able to survive five innings and a light rain falling, it became a very strange game for something as important as Game 3 of the NL Championship Series.
But they all count, and Wednesday night’s 4-3 victory goes in the Cardinals’ corner, giving them a 2-1 advantage heading into tonight’s game.
This is an unusual spot for the Cardinals, who have played catch-up baseball for the last six weeks. So how will being in the driver’s seat affect them?
“We’ll see (tonight),” manager Tony La Russa said. “Our attitude is not to stop to think about it because there’s so much to do.”
Game 3 might have been decided before it started when Brewers manager Ron Roenicke went with Mark Kotsay in center field over slumping Nyjer Morgan, reasoning that “something always good seems to happen when he’s in there.”
Well, not always.
Not only did Kotsay get doubled off second base on a flyball to squash a first-inning rally, but he missed a diving catch in center, allowing the Cardinals to score their first run.
By the time the first inning was over, the Brewers and starter Yovani Gallardo found themselves in a 4-0 hole.
Gallardo had trouble finding the strike zone and when he did, the Cardinals hit it.
Leadoff man Rafael Furcal got the ball rolling with a single, advancing to second base on a wild pitch before Jon Jay’s smash to center eluded Kotsay.
Albert Pujols then got into the act, driving home Jay with a double. Gallardo walked the next two before getting a double play that scored the third run. The fourth came on an RBI double by David Freese.
Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter was nearly as shaky as Gallardo, walking a batter and hitting another before Prince Fielder hit into a double play to end the short-lived rally.
In the second inning, Carpenter allowed three straight hits and two runs. In the third, Kotsay atoned for one of his gaffes by hitting a 416-foot homer.
“It was a battle all night long,” Carpenter said. “My stuff was OK, but they worked me hard. They had great at-bats. . . . Our bullpen did a phenomenal job and we win. That’s what counts.”
Key moment
One, and pretty much done
Yovani Gallardo, who’s 1-7 with a 5.66 career mark against the Cardinals, trailed 2-0 after his first 12 pitches and barely made it out of the first trailing 4-0. The right- hander walked three batters, one of them intentionally, and the Brewers had Chris Narveson up in the bullpen before Yadier Molina grounded into a double play, scoring the fourth run, for his first outs.
Stars of the game
Cardinals bullpen
After Chris Carpenter turned over a precarious one-run lead to the Cardinals’ corps of relievers to begin the sixth inning, Fernando Salas, Lance Lynn, Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Motte shut down the Brewers to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Motte, who had two saves lasting more than an inning in September, got four outs for this save and struck out pinch-hitter Casey McGehee to end it.
Cardinals lead series 2-1
Best of seven; all games on TBS; x-if necessary
Milwaukee 9, St. Louis 6
St. Louis 12, Milwaukee 3
St. Louis 4,Milwaukee 3
Today:Milwaukee (Wolf 13-10) at St. Louis (Lohse 14-8), 6:05 p.m.
Friday: Milwaukee at St. Louis, 6:05 p.m.
x-Sunday: St. Louis at Milwaukee, 2:05 or 6:05 p.m.
x-Monday: St. Louis at Milwaukee, 6:05 p.m.
