ST. LOUIS – Milwaukee's best starting pitching performance of the National League Championship Series came from a most unlikely candidate.
Randy Wolf worked seven strong innings in the Brewers' 4-2 victory over St. Louis in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series at Busch Stadium. Wolf gave up just six hits with six strikeouts and two walks, and his two runs came from two solo home runs.
It was quite the stunning turnaround from his last outing, when he was hit early and often in a short start in Game 4 of the NLDS at Arizona. He came into Game 4 with an ERA of 21.00, the highest of any National League pitcher in the postseason.
"Great to see," said Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke. "Right from the beginning, I thought he had a real feel for his curveball."
The victory ensures that the series will return to Milwaukee for a Game 6, scheduled for Sunday at Miller Park, where the Brewers won 57 games during the regular season and are 4-1 during the playoffs.
Milwaukee also avoiding the need to win three in a row to close out the series.
"That in itself, statistically and mathematically, makes it tough," Wolf said. "We knew going into this series we were going to have our work cut out for us and today, to even the series as opposed to being (down), 3-1, it's a good thing for us. It's a very good thing for us."
St. Louis again scored first, on Matt Holliday's one-out home run in the second. The Cardinals went up, 2-0, on an Allen Craig shot in the third. But that was all St. Louis could muster. The Cardinals would strand their final five base runners and the Brewers were able to even the series at 2-2, forcing at least a sixth game in the best-of-seven series.
"I thought we took some really good at-bats to create some stuff," said St. Louis manager Tony La Russa. "Twice, we had a runner at third ... He just made really good pitches and we didn't create a whole lot after that because he pitched really well."
The Brewers went to work on Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse in the fourth. Prince Fielder opened the inning with a double and scored on Jerry Hairston, Jr.'s one-out double. Yuniesky Betancourt followed with an RBI single to tie the game before Lohse retired George Kottaras and Randy Wolf to end the inning.
Ryan Braun broke the tie in the fifth, with an RBI single to left and the Brewers added an insurance run in the sixth on Hairston's third double of the NLCS and fifth of the postseason. Milwaukee had a chance to add more, but after Wolf's sac bunt put runners at second and third, Nyjer Morgan struck out looking to end the inning.
The Brewers' bullpen finished what Wolf started. Francisco Rodriguez worked around a one-out single to David Freese by getting Matt Holliday to ground out to third and Yadier Molina to strike out swinging.
After Fernando Salas retired the Brewers in the ninth, John Axford gave up a two-out, pinch-hit single to Lance Berkman before getting Rafael Furcal to ground into a force at second to end the game.
Game 5 of the series is set for Friday night in St. Louis. Zack Greinke starts for Milwaukee and Jamie Garcia takes the mound for the Cardinals.
