If you thought the St. Louis Cardinals were just going to go quietly into the night, you were wrong.
The Cardinals evened their best-of-seven National League Championship Series with a 11-2 drubbing of the Brewers Monday night at Miller Park.
The Cardinals collected 17 hits in the game, a franchise record for an LCS game. First baseman Albert Pujols led the way, going 4-for-5 with three doubles and a two-run home run in the first inning. His final stat line included four runs scored and 5 RBIs.
He is now hitting .625 for the series.
"I'm in every game," Pujols said. "I don't take this game for granted. Yesterday was a tough loss. I had an opportunity to contribute, to help my ball club."
Pujols wasn't the only Cardinal swinging a big bat. John Jay had a good day atop the lineup, collecting three hits and scoring three times while catcher Yadier Molina, third baseman David Freese and second baseman Nick Punto helped the cause with two-hit performances.
They chased Milwaukee starter Shaun Marcum from the game after just four innings, tagging him for five runs on seven hits and a walk. Going back to the regular season, he's lost four of his last five starts and is 0-2 in the playoffs.
Including Game 3 of the NLDS against Arizona, Marcum has allowed 12 runs in 8.2 innings of work.
"Frustration," Marcum said, when asked what he felt. "Obviously I want to go out there and post zeros and give these guys a chance to win when we're down, 5-0. They way Edwin was throwing the ball, I really didn't give them a chance."
St. Louis jumped on Marcum early, turning a one-out walk by Jay into a 2-0 lead on Pujols' home run in the first inning. They doubled the lead in the third, on Pujols' first double of the day and after Milwaukee scored twice in the bottom of the fourth, another Pujols double bade it a 7-2 ballgame.
The game got out of hand in the seventh. With one out, another Pujols double was followed by five straight singles, turning a five-run game into an 11-2 runaway.
"We had some really good at-bats on pitches where they had – like we did yesterday, got the ball in the middle of the plater. We also had some balls that were mishit that found holes.
"(Pitching coach) Dave (Duncan) and I were talking about that thing, it's a misleading score because the game was very scary up until that four extra runs."
Despite plenty of run support, Edwin Jackson still lasted just 4.1 innings. In the fifth, he led off by walking Corey Hart and getting Nyjer Morgan to fly out to center before giving up a double to Ryan Braun.
With Prince Fielder due up, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa summoned lefty Arthur Rhodes from the bullpen. Rhodes walked Fielder to load the bases and gave way to Lance Lynn who ended the threat by getting Rickie Weeks to ground into a double play.
Milwaukee would make it an 11-3 game in the eighth on Prince Fielder's second home run of the NLCS and third of the postseason. But that was as close as they would get.
Freese came back with a solo home run in the ninth to put the Cardinals up by nine before reliever Jason Motte retired Milwaukee in order in the bottom of the inning to close things out.
"We didn't play well today," Roenicke said. "We didn't play well defensively. We didn't pitch well. But I thought we sung the bats OK.
"Going into St. Louis, hey, we're going to have to keep swinging the bat well. We need to pitch better. It's nice we have Yo going, we feel real confident with that. We'll see what happens."
The series resumes Wednesday in St. Louis with a battle of aces. Milwaukee starts Yovani Gallardo and the Cardinals counter with Chris Carpenter. First pitch is 7:05 p.m.
