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No team could use a stretch of favorable pitching matchups more than the Minnesota Twins, who entered Sunday with the worst record in the majors at 14-26. But, as teams far better than the Twins have learned the hard way, facing Zack Greinke at Miller Park is anything but favorable for opposing hitters.

Greinke won again at home Sunday, allowing just one run and striking out six as the Milwaukee Brewers smashed the Twins 16-4. It was Greinke’s 18th straight win in a home decision, with the last 14 coming since he arrived in Milwaukee from Kansas City.

With the win, Greinke became the first pitcher to win 18 straight home decisions since Kenny Rogers won 19 consecutive decisions at home with four different teams from 1997 to 2000.

Greinke and Rogers are two of the six pitchers with a win streak of at least 18 in home decisions in the live-ball era (since 1920). They’re joined by Roy Face, Frank Viola, Ray Kremer and Lefty Grove, who had two separate streaks of at least 18 wins in home decisions (18 from 1932-33, 20 from 1938-40).

Greinke hasn’t lost a home start since July 26, 2010, when he allowed eight runs over four innings in a 19-1 loss to the Twins.

Greinke wasn’t the only Brewer to make history Sunday. Jonathan Lucroy drove in seven runs, tying a franchise record. He joined Carlos Ruiz (May 2, 2012) as the only catchers to have at least seven RBI in a game in the last two seasons.

Elsewhere in the majors Sunday, Max Scherzer had a career-high 15 strikeouts, one shy of a Detroit Tigers franchise record, in a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Scherzer induced 26 swings-and-misses, the most by any pitcher this season and the most since Brandon Morrow had 26 on May 5, 2010 vs the Cleveland Indians.

Scherzer became the second AL pitcher to strike out at least 15 in seven or fewer innings in the last 90 years. Baltimore Orioles starter Mike Mussina struck out 15 in seven innings against the Boston Red Sox on September 24, 2000.

In other MLB action Sunday:

" Stephen Strasburg hit his first career home run and earned the win in the Washington Nationals 9-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Strasburg is now hitting .375 this season and has an extra-base hit in four of his last five games.

" Josh Beckett allowed one run on seven hits as the Red Sox beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-1. Beckett has now won consecutive starts for the first time since August 2011 and has allowed one run in his last 14T innings.

" The Phillies fell to 1-5 in Cliff Lee’s starts this season after he allowed five runs, his most since July 2011, to the Red Sox. The Phillies were 22-10 in Lee’s 32 starts last season.

Don’t look now, but the Washington Nationals have zoomed to the top of the NL East following their 3-2, extra-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday afternoon.

The Nationals improved to 5-2, their best start since moving to Washington, and also win their first home opener since 2008. This is just the second time in the last 15 seasons the franchise has won five of its first seven games. In 2001, the Montreal Expos were 6-1 after seven games.

The Nats took a 2-0 lead into the ninth inning but Brad Lidge blew the save, allowing two runs on two hits and two walks. Lidge had allowed just one run over his previous 16 appearances dating to August of last year.

The Nationals won it in the 10th inning thanks to a wild outing by Reds reliever Alfredo Simon. Simon hit Ryan Zimmerman to lead off the inning and Zimmerman eventually came around to score four batters later on Simon’s wild pitch with Roger Bernadina at the plate.

This was the Nationals’ fifth win on a game-ending wild pitch since moving to Washington in 2005. Entering Thursday, the Nats had lost their last six extra-inning games against the Reds and were 0-5 in one-run games versus Cincinnati over the last two season.

Gio Gonzalez got a no-decision but deserved the win, tossing seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and just two hits allowed.

Gonzalez had success going low as Reds hitters went 0-for-11 in at-bats ending with pitches down in the zone or below. Gonzalez also did a good job finishing off batters, allowing zero hits in 13 at-bats that reached a two-strike count.

Around The Diamond
• The Minnesota Twins came back from a six-run deficit against the Los Angeles Angels thanks to home runs from both Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer. It was the first time that Morneau and Mauer homered in the same game since July 6, 2010.

• Matt Garza fell one out short of a shutout when he was pulled after 119 pitches in the ninth inning of the Chicago Cubs 8-0 win. Garza had his slider working, throwing 31 of them, as the Milwaukee Brewers were hitless including five strikeouts in nine at-bats ending with the pitch.

• The Detroit Tigers improved to 5-1 this season with a win over the Tampa Bay Rays. Austin Jackson scored a run and has now crossed home plate in all six games this season, the longest streak to start the season by a Tiger since Darrell Evans scored in the first eight games in 1986.

• Madison Bumgarner took a no-hitter into the sixth inning as the San Francisco Giants beat the Colorado Rockies 4-2. Bumgarner recorded a career-high 14 ground-ball outs (including a double play) with eight of them coming in at-bats ending in sliders.

The Milwaukee Brewers head to the Windy City to open a four-game series against the Chicago Cubs tonight (ESPN, 7 ET). The Brewers went 10-6 against the Cubs last season, their first winning season against Chicago since 2005. The Cubs were 45-34 against Milwaukee from 2006-10.

Starting Pitchers
Shaun Marcum takes the mound for the Brewers in his first start of the season. Marcum is coming off a career year in 2011 – his first in the National League after starting his career with the Toronto Blue Jays - as he set career highs with 33 starts and 200⅔ IP, and tied his career high with 13 wins.

The cutter will be Marcum’s weapon, a pitch he improved and increased his use of last season. In 2011, he threw his cutter 17.7 percent of the time and has a miss percentage of 26.0, compared to throwing it 15.9 percent of the time with a 22.2 miss percentage in 2010. In addition, Marcum allowed only two HR off his cutter last season, compared to seven home runs in 2010.

Chris Volstad is 1-1 with a sparkling 1.71 ERA in four career starts against the Brewers. He’ll be excited to see Milwaukee without Prince Fielder in the lineup. Volstad’s opponents’ batting average against lefties was fifth-worst in the majors last season.

Volstad’s performance against lefties has gotten worse each of his four seasons in the majors. In 2008, he allowed lefties to hit .243 against him, but saw left-handed hitters become more comfortable in each of the subsequent years – hitting .255 in 2009; .292 in 2010; and a career-high .305 against him last season. Only four other pitchers (min. 300 AB) had a higher opponent batting average against left-handed batters last season.

Stat of the Game
Milwaukee entered the season without Prince Fielder for the first time since 2005 (signed a free-agent contract with the Detroit Tigers). It’s only three games, but they are feeling his loss as their first basemen (Mat Gamel and Travis Ishikawa) are a combined 2-for-12 with five strikeouts and no extra-base hits. Fielder is hitting .417 with two HR and two strikeouts in three games with the Tigers.

Key Matchup
Chicago second baseman Darwin Barney is 3-for-7 with three doubles against Marcum, but the rest of the Cubs are 5-for-53 (.094) with two extra-base hits combined. David DeJesus is 0-for-16 with four strikeouts against him.

John Fisher contributed to this post

Wondering why those who are in the top 10 were picked in those spots? Here are some numbers to know about each of the top 10 players in the ESPN 500.

Albert Pujols –- Pujols is in very elite company. He’s one of six players to hit 400 career home runs and bat at least .325. The other five: Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Stan Musial. Pujols’ 445 home runs through his first 11 seasons are the most all-time through a player’s initial 11 years in the majors.

Roy Halladay -- Halladay has 170 wins and a 2.97 ERA, averaging almost 210 innings per year over the last 10 seasons. The last pitcher to average 17 wins and 200 innings a season, over a 10-season span, and do so with a sub-3.00 ERA was Greg Maddux from 1995 to 2004.

Miguel Cabrera -- Cabrera has led the American League in at least two significant offensive categories in three of the last four seasons. Cabrera’s .977 OPS over the last six seasons trails only Albert Pujols in that span.

Justin Verlander -– Verlander won both the AL MVP and Cy Young awards in 2011, the first pitcher to win both since Oakland’s Dennis Eckersley in 1992, and the first starter to do so since Roger Clemens in 1986. Over the last three seasons, Verlander leads the majors in wins (61) and strikeouts (738) and is third in opponents BA (.221).

Felix Hernandez -- Hernandez and Roy Halladay are the only two pitchers to average 240 innings per season over the last three seasons, and his ERA, when adjusted for ballpark, ranks second to Halladay in that span as well.

Ryan Braun –- Braun has led all major league outfielders in batting average (.318), RBI (328), runs (323) and doubles (122) over the last three seasons. The 2007 NL Rookie the Year and 2011 NL MVP has hit 161 HR in his first five seasons, the 10th-most by a player in his first five seasons.

Clayton Kershaw –- Kershaw is second to Roy Halladay among National League starters in both wins and ERA, but leads in strikeouts and opponent batting average over the last two seasons.

Troy Tulowitzki -- Over the last three seasons, Tulowitzki has 89 home runs, 34 more than any other player whose primary position is shortstop. His OPS+ of 134 also tops all shortstops in that span. Tulowitzki also ranks third among shortstops over the last three seasons in Defensive Runs Saved.

Tim Lincecum –- Since making his debut in May of 2007, Lincecum has struck out at least 10 batters in a game 31 times, the most in the majors over that span. His 977 strikeouts over the last four years is tops among all pitchers.

Robinson Cano -- Cano has led major-league second baseman in both slugging percentage and OPS in each of the last two seasons. This season, he will likely break the Yankees record for career home runs as a second baseman, a mark currently held by Tony Lazzeri (147- eight more than Cano) that has stood for more than half a century.

The Milwaukee Brewers are hoping that Aramis Ramirez can find Milwaukee as much to his liking as he did Chicago.

The three-year contract to which he and the Brewers agreed is the biggest in Brewers history for a free agent in terms of average annual value. He’ll replace Casey McGehee as the team’s everyday third baseman.

Historically Wrigley Field lived up to its “friendly confines” billing for Ramirez during his eight-season stint there.

In 2011, Ramirez hit .332 at home, with 14 home runs, 49 RBI, and a .557 slugging percentage, one nearly 100 points better than his road slugging numbers.

Over the past four seasons, Ramirez had a .972 OPS at Wrigley, the ninth-best of any player in his home ballpark in that span.

Though Miller Park is more statistically friendly to right-handed power hitters than Wrigley Field, video review by ESPN HR Tracker showed that, six of Ramirez’ 14 home runs hit at Wrigley Field in 2011 would not have been home runs at Miller Park.

That’s because Milwaukee’s home ballpark is a bit deeper in left center field than Wrigley Field is (the difference appears to range from three to 16 feet), and that’s the area to which Ramirez tends to homer most frequently.

The image at the top of this article shows the ballpark dimensions for Wrigley (in red) and Miller Park (in black) and the landing spots of those six home runs. Four of the six would have been very close to leaving the ballpark, but video review judges them to be just short.

Ramirez did not homer to right field at home in any of the last three seasons, so Miller Park’s dimensions being shorter to that side, don’t figure to benefit him.

The best skill that Ramirez brings to the Brewers lineup is the ability to hit breaking pitches. Over the last two seasons, Ramirez is among the best hitters both at those that are the most hittable.

Ramirez had an .885 OPS in at-bats that ended with breaking pitches over the last two seasons, fifth-best of anyone in the major leagues. His performance was comparable with the likes of Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Robinson Cano, those considered among the best hitters in baseball.

Ramirez’s biggest issues are on defense at the hot corner. The Brewers made a statistical upgrade on the defensive side by signing Alex Gonzalez to play shortstop. But the stats show that playing Ramirez to Gonzalez’s right could be costly.

In each of the last four seasons, Ramirez has posted a negative Defensive Runs Saved, with that metric showing that he has cost his team 35 runs in that span. That’s third-worst among major league third basemen. Ramirez’s plus-minus rating on ground balls showed him to be 54 bases below the average third baseman since 2008.

For more on Ramirez’s defensive struggles last season, check out our previous piece on the subject.

Mark Simon, Jacob Nitzberg, and Tom McKean contributed to this post

Each Sunday, ESPN Stats & Information reviews significant moves from the past week.

Diamondbacks trade with Athletics for P Trevor Cahill
Cahill is coming off a disappointing season, in which his ERA rose more than a run from 2010, even though his strikeout-to-walk ratio and home run rate were almost identical in both seasons.

The difference in Cahill’s performance over the last two seasons was a BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) that rose from an MLB-low .236 in 2010 to .302 in 2011.

Was his 4.16 ERA last year a product of bad luck?

Cahill is a ground-ball specialist, ranking first among AL starters in ground ball rate over the last two seasons (56.4 percent).

Last season, he struggled to locate his signature sinker down in the zone, especially against righties.

Only one-third of his sinkers thrown to right-handed hitters in 2011 were located in the lower-third of the strike zone or below the knees, compared to 43 percent in 2010.

The effectiveness of the pitch was much worse last season compared to the previous year, as noted in the chart on the right.

Cahill continued to challenge hitters with his sinker in 2011 despite its ineffectiveness, throwing it more than 50 percent of the time compared to less than 40 percent in 2010.

Cahill recorded double-digit ground outs in just two of his 14 starts in the second half, after doing so in half of his 20 starts before the break.

The heat map at the top of this piece shows the difference in the effectiveness of Cahill’s sinker in each of the last two seasons.
--Katie Sharp

Angels sign C.J. Wilson
Wilson pitched like an ace last year, with the fourth-highest WAR and seventh-best ERA among AL pitchers.

There is a thought that in 2012 Wilson could post even better numbers than he did in 2011, when his ERA ranked seventh-best.

He’ll be moving from the hitter-friendly Rangers Ballpark to Angel Stadium, which last year reduced run-scoring by an AL-high 16 percent according to ESPN.com’s Park Factors.

However, Wilson must now face the Texas Rangers lineup likely four or five times in 2012. The Rangers ranked among the AL’s top three in batting average, slugging percentage, runs and OPS.

Last year, just four of his 34 starts came against the Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Detroit Tigers, which ranked first, second and fourth, respectively in OPS in the league.

Via Baseball Prospectus, the opposing hitters that Wilson faced had a combined .728 OPS, lowest among pitchers who threw at least 150 innings last season.

Wilson could be replacing his six starts against the Angels with six against the Rangers. He had a solid 2.65 ERA against his current team last season, but will be challenged to repeat that against Texas in 2012.

Last season 17 pitchers made at least three starts against the Rangers. Only four of them posted an ERA below four, led by Cahill’s 3.10 in six starts.
--Katie Sharp

Brewers sign SS Alex Gonzalez
The Milwaukee Brewers signed Gonzalez to replace Yuniesky Betancourt at shortstop.

It's an even move offensively; Gonzalez has a career on-base percentage of .291 and slugging percentage of .399. Betancourt’s career numbers are .292 and .391, respectively.

But over the past two seasons -- according to Baseball Info Solutions’ stat Defensive Runs Saved -- Gonzalez has saved his teams 31 runs. Betancourt has cost his team 27.

If we use the sabermetric value of 10 runs equaling a win, that means Gonzalez has been worth nearly six more wins than Betancourt over the past two seasons with his glove alone.

That’s a big upgrade for a team that had its share of defensive issues during the postseason after finishing 11th in the majors in Defensive Runs Saved in 2011.
-- John Fisher

As the saying goes, a team can never have enough pitching. Specific to the Kansas City Royals, it’s relief pitching. The team came to an agreement with former Los Angeles Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton on a 1-year, $4 million deal earlier this week. No team in baseball has the collection of power arms in the bullpen that the Royals have assembled and if Broxton can return to the form that made him arguably the best reliever in the game, the team could be looking at its best bullpen in 20 years.

In 2009, Broxton established himself as quite possibly the best reliever in the National League. He posted a 2.61 ERA that actually belied how effective he was, as his Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP) mark was 1.97, the best in the National League among relievers with at least 50 innings pitched. His 2.8 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) also ranked 1st among relievers. From 2006 to 2009, working both as a middle reliever and closer, Broxton compiled 398 strikeouts in 303 1/3 innings pitched, culminating in 114 strikeouts in 76 innings in 2009.

His performance has rapidly deteriorated since that point, however. Everything about Broxton’s performance has been headed in the wrong direction – his strikeout rate has dropped from 30.1 percent to 23.2 to 18.2 from 2009 to 2011, while his walk rate has jumped from 14.0 percent to 18.2 over the same span. The rate at which he was surrendering line drives also spiked, going from 16.1 percent in 2009 to more than double that in 2011 – 32.6. In fact, among pitchers with at least 10 innings pitched, that line drive rate was the 3rd-worst in baseball.

Clearly, the Royals are buying low on Broxton in hopes he’ll return to his dominant form of 2009. Part of what made Broxton so effective was his average fastball velocity, which sat at 97.6 in 2009 before dropping to 95.3 and 94.0 the last two seasons. If he can regain his previous form, he’ll fit right in with a Royals bullpen that featured some of the hardest-throwing arms in the big leagues. Among AL relievers who threw at least 200 pitches in 2011, the Royals had 4 of the top 18 according to average fastball velocity – Jeremy Jeffress (3rd, 96.8), Blake Wood (8th, 95.5), Aaron Crow (17th, 94.9) and Greg Holland (18th, 94.9).

That group does not even include established closer Joakim Soria or diminutive lefty Tim Collins, who ranked 5th among AL left-handed relivers in average fastball velocity in 2011 at 92.3. A vast majority of these arms have been acquired under the regime of GM Dayton Moore – Holland in the 2007 draft, Crow in the 2009 draft, Jeffress in the Zack Greinke trade with the Milwaukee Brewers and Collins in a 2010 trade with the Atlanta Braves.

It is this collection of high-upside, hard-throwing bullpen arms that helped the Royals to post its best relief season – by ERA – in the Wild Card era. The team’s 3.74 bullpen ERA was its best since 1992 and only the 5th time since 1990 that it’s been under 4.00. While Broxton may never return to his previously dominant form, it’s yet another example of the Royals front office adding a low-cost, high-upside, high-velocity reliever a move that, if it works, could lead the Royals to their first consecutive seasons with bullpen ERAs below 4.00 since they did so three consecutive seasons from 1988-90 and could lead Broxton to a significantly larger payday after 2012.

After going from 1983 to 2007 without a single postseason appearance, the Milwaukee Brewers once again played into October in 2011 for the second time in four seasons. It was that team success that helped to propel Ryan Braun to his first National League MVP award.

Braun becomes just the third Brewers player to capture the MVP, joining Robin Yount in 1989 and 1982 and Rollie Fingers in 1981. It comes in a season where he became the first player in franchise history to post a .330 batting average along with 30 home runs and 100 RBI. Further adding to the accolades, he became the first Brewers player since Tommy Harper in 1970 to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in a season.

While the final points total revealed just how close Braun and his primary competition for the award, Matt Kemp, were in 2011, Braun dominated the first-place votes, receiving 20 out of 32.

Kemp received 10, with Braun's teammate Prince Fielder and Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamondbacks each picking up a single first-place vote.

The tale of Braun's MVP cannot be fully told without discussing what ultimately cost Kemp the recognition -- team success. A look at both traditional and advanced statistics suggest that, in terms of performance, Kemp contributed the superior 2011 season.

For the traditionalists, Kemp exceeded Braun in on-base percentage, home runs, RBI and stolen bases. For those who prefer advanced metrics, Kemp led the National League in Wins Above Replacement (WAR) while Braun ranked third, and Kemp ranked third in Win Probability Added (WPA) with Braun fourth.

The difference, of course, was that the Brewers and Braun won the NL Central while Kemp and the Dodgers languished out of contention for much of the year before a late-season surge pushed them above .500.

Ultimately, a Kemp win would have been historically unprecedented, entirely because of the lack of success the Los Angeles Dodgers had this season. Much as Jacoby Ellsbury and Jose Bautista saw support erode when their teams missed the postseason, Kemp likely suffered from much the same fate.

Had the voters selected him, the Dodgers' win percentage this season would have been the worst of all-time for a team that had both the Cy Young and MVP in the same season.

Only one team in MLB history has had the MVP and Cy Young awards won by different players in the same season and not made the postseason -- the 1962 Dodgers with Maury Wills and Don Drysdale. Those are steep odds that Kemp was facing and, ultimately, that lack of team success cost him the 2011 MVP.

For the second time in the last six seasons, the St. Louis Cardinals are headed back to the World Series. Thanks to two four-run innings and three home runs, the Cardinals defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 12-6 in Game 6 of the NLCS Sunday to clinch their 18th pennant. It's Tony La Russa's sixth trip to the World Series and his third with the Cardinals. That's most among current managers and tied for sixth most all-time.

David Freese went 3-4 including a single, double and three-run home run and scored three runs. He finished the LCS with three home runs, a .545 batting average and nine RBI en route to winning MVP. The only other player to hit all three of those benchmarks in a postseason series is Lou Gehrig who hit .545 with four home runs and nine RBI against the Cardinals in the 1928 World Series. Freese is the fourth third baseman to win LCS MVP joining Graig Nettles, George Brett and Gary Gaetti.

The teams scored in each of the first five half-innings, just the second time that's happened in postseason history according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The other instance was Game 3 of the 1910 World Series between the Philadelphia Athletics and Cubs.

Elias also says this is the first postseason game in which one of the teams hit a leadoff home run in each of the first three innings. St. Louis was the first team to score first in all six games of a postseason series.

The Cardinals lost five of nine games at Miller Park during the regular season, but took two of three in Milwaukee this series. They are just the fourth Wild Card team to win the LCS by eliminating their division champion on that team's home field.

Brewers starter Shaun Marcum lasted just one inning allowing four earned runs. Marcum finished the postseason with a 14.90 ERA, the highest single postseason ERA among pitchers with a minimum nine innings. He's the sixth starter to go no more than one inning in an NLCS game in the Wild Card era.

The Brewers' defense didn't help either as they committed nine errors in the series including seven in their last two games. The nine errors are most in a NLCS and one shy of the LCS record set by the 1999 Red Sox.

Albert Pujols homered for the second time in the series and moved past Bernie Williams and George Brett into second place for most home runs in the LCS. Only Manny Ramirez has more LCS home runs with 13.

The NLCS is back in Milwaukee for Game 6, where the Milwaukee Brewers will try to avoid elimination tonight. This will be just the second Game 6 the franchise has played in its 43-year history. The first one didn’t go so well – a 13-1 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1982 World Series.

However, the Brewers are happy to be playing at the friendly confines of Miller Park. The Brew Crew is 10-5 all-time in home postseason games, which is tied with the New York Mets (26-13) for the all-time best home winning percentage in the postseason (min. 15 games).

The Cardinals are looking to clinch a World Series berth for the 18th time in franchise history, which would put them in a tie with the Giants and Dodgers for the second-most appearances all-time, behind only the Yankees (40).

On the Mound
The Brewers send Shaun Marcum to the mound with their season on the line. Marcum has struggled in his last six starts since the beginning of September, with a 8.18 ERA and 1-4 record over that span. Prior to this recent slide, he was 12-5 with a 3.11 ERA in 29 starts.

Marcum is an off-speed specialist, throwing his fastball less than 30 percent of the time this season, but it was his heater that the Cardinals pounded in Game 2 of the NLCS.

Of the six fastballs the Cardinals swung at, four went for hits, including two doubles and a homer. The three extra-base hits were the most against his fastball in any start this season.

Edwin Jackson takes the mound in this potential pennant-clinching game for the Cardinals. In his last two starts in Milwaukee, including Game 2 of this series, he has a 2.38 ERA and walked just one of the 47 batters he faced.

He had a lot success when he was able to keep the ball down, as the Brewers went a combined 1-for-13 in at-bats ending on pitches in the bottom third of the zone and below, and missed on 12 of their 28 swings at those pitches.

Inside the Series
Including the playoffs, these teams have now played each other 23 times this season and the Cardinals have won 12 times, outscoring the Brewers by just four runs. So it would be no surprise if this series went the distance…

…And research by the Elias Sports Bureau confirms this. There have been 89 seven-game postseason series where a team trailed 3-2. Forty-nine of those 89 series, or 55 percent, went to a winner-take-all Game 7.

The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-1 in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the NLCS, thanks to a strong effort from the Cardinals bullpen and four costly errors by the Brewers defense.

Jaime Garcia allowed four hits and no runs in his first four innings, but couldn’t make it through the fifth when he gave up three singles and a run scored with two outs.

For that near-winning effort, Garcia became the first starting pitcher in postseason history to pitch 4⅔ innings, allow one run or fewer and be in position for a win, but be pulled from the game.

With the early hook of Garcia by Tony LaRussa, no Cardinals starter has gotten an out in the sixth inning in the NLCS. If the Cardinals are able to win the series, it would be a historic event given the failure of their starting rotation to go deep into games.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no team has won a postseason series in which its starters did not pitch more than five innings in any of the first five games.

The Brewers, who had not committed four errors in any game since May 2008, became the third team to have four errors in a NLCS game. The other teams were the 1974 Dodgers vs Pirates (5 errors) and the 2001 Braves vs Diamondbacks (4 errors).

Zack Greinke was the on the mound for three of the four errors, which led to three unearned runs and five runs total in 5⅔ innings. During the regular season, he allowed just nine unearned runs, but seven of them came in his 13 road starts.

Greinke’s ERA rose to 6.48 in this postseason following the game. If he doesn’t pitch again, he’ll own the second-highest ERA in a single postseason (min. 15 IP) by a pitcher that had previously won the Cy Young Award, according to Elias.

The series now shifts to Milwaukee for Game 6 on Sunday. Brewers fans, however, have a reason to be optimistic despite their team being down 3-2 in the series.

Milwaukee is 5-1 in postseason elimination games at home, which is tied for the second-best record in such games in the Divisional Era (min. 3 games), according to Elias.

Cardinals fans can’t stock the refrigerator with celebratory beverages yet, although they need one win to reach the World Series. The Redbirds have lost their last four Game 6’s on the road dating back to the 1985 World Series. The only team to match that streak is the Giants franchise from 1929 to 2002.

The Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals try to take control of the NLCS Friday in St. Louis with the series tied at two apiece. Four previous times the Cardinals have been tied 2-2 in the NLCS (1985, 1987, 2004, 2006). All four times they won the series and advanced to the World Series. The Brewers have only been in one previous best-of-seven series that was tied at two games, the 1982 World Series, which they lost in seven games to the Cardinals despite winning Game 5.

On the Mound
This is a rematch of the starting pitchers for Game 1 of this series – Zack Greinke and Jaime Garcia.

Greinke is making his third career postseason start. In the Game 1 start of this series, he went six innings while allowing six earned runs, but still earned the win. In fact, Greinke probably wishes this start was at home since he’s 12-0 in Miller Park this season (regular and postseason combined).

Greinke is 5-3 with a 4.41 ERA in eight career starts against the Cardinals (including postseason).

Garcia is also making his third career postseason start. He enters 0-2 with a 7.36 ERA, which includes allowing six earned runs in four innings in Game 1 against Milwaukee.

Garcia - who’s 3-3 with a 3.64 ERA in eight career starts against the Brewers - has struggled after a promising start to the season. Garcia began the year 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his first 10 starts, but since then, he’s only 8-9 with a 4.62 ERA.

Players to Watch
Albert Pujols is 8-for-15 (.533) with six RBI in this series and David Freese is 8-for-16 (.500) with six runs batted in. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, they are the first pair of teammates in major-league history to each bat at least .500 with six or more RBIs through their team's first four games of a postseason series.

Can the Cardinals slow down Ryan Braun? He has nine RBI this postseason. Only Cecil Cooper had more in a single postseason for the Brewers, with 10 in 1982. Braun also has reached base safely in the first inning in each of his last eight postseason games. That's the longest streak in MLB history, surpassing the mark he shared with Gary Sheffield for the 1997 Marlins. With 21 hits in his first 50 postseason at-bats, he is the first player since Mike Stanley (1995-1999) to accomplish that feat. Six other players did it prior to Stanley.

Stat of the Game
This is the third best-of-seven postseason series of Tony La Russa's managerial career that was tied 2-2 through four games. According to Elias, his team won each of the previous two such series in seven games: the 2004 NLCS against the Houston Astros and the 2006 NLCS vs. the New York Mets.

The Milwaukee Brewers evened the National League Championship Series at two games apiece, beating the Cardinals 4-2 on Thursday in St. Louis for their first postseason road win since Game 1 of the 1982 World Series, which was a 10-0 victory at the old Busch Stadium.

The Brew Crew snapped an eight-game postseason road losing streak, which was tied for the second longest all time. Only the Senators/Twins franchise, which lost 12 road games in a row during postseason play from 1925 to 1987, had a longer streak.

Randy Wolf pitched seven solid innings for his first career postseason win, allowing two runs on six hits. The win was a long time coming for Wolf, who entered the game with 342 career regular-season starts, the most among active pitchers with no postseason victories.

Wolf had struggled in his previous postseason start, a seven-run, three-inning loss in Game 4 of the NL Divsion Series.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, he is the sixth pitcher in the divisional era (since 1969) to allow that many runs in that few innings pitched and then win his next postseason start.

Wolf also helped out at the plate, hitting a double in the third inning, which was the first extra-base hit ever by a Brewers pitcher in the postseason.

Ryan Braun once again got the Brewers' offense started early, with a first-inning single. Braun now has reached base safely in the first inning in a major league-record eight straight postseason games.

Braun, who finished 2-for-5 with an RBI, is rapidly climbing the Brewers' career postseason ranks. His 11 RBIs are two shy of Cecil Cooper for the most all time, while his 21 hits are one shy of the franchise record shared by Paul Molitor and Robin Yount.

The Cardinals aren’t happy to be tied with the Brewers, but there is some reason for optimism: This is the fifth time the team has been tied 2-2 in an NLCS (1985, 1987, 2004, 2006). In each of the previous four instances, the Cardinals won the series and advanced to the Fall Classic.

This is the second time the Cardinals and Brewers have met in the postseason, and the series is shaping up to be very similar to their previous meeting.

In the 1982 World Series, the Brewers won Game 1 and Game 4, while the Cardinals took Game 2 and Game 3. The Brewers will hope for a different ending this time, as the Cardinals took Games 6 and 7 to win the title in seven games.

The two teams play one more game in St. Louis, with a critical Game 5 scheduled for Friday night. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, in a best-of-seven series tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has won 36 of 52 series, including 10 of 13 in the LCS.

The St. Louis Cardinals look to take a 3-1 series lead over the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLCS. The Cardinals are 2-6 all-time in LCS Game 4’s, having lost five straight such games (last Game 4 LCS win was in 1996 against the Atlanta Braves). The Brewers are 1-0 all-time in LCS Game 4’s, having defeated the California Angels in 1982.

On the Mound
Milwaukee will hand the ball to Randy Wolf, who is 0-2 with a 10.43 ERA in his last three starts, including the postseason. Wolf is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in three career postseason starts, never having gone more than 5⅓ innings.

Wolf has made 342 career regular season starts, the most among active pitchers with no postseason wins, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Ted Lilly (342) and St. Louis start for Game 4, Kyle Lohse (298) are next on the list.

As mentioned, St. Louis will pitch Kyle Lohse, who beat the Brewers on September 6 after going 0-5 with a 4.67 ERA in his previous 10 games against Milwaukee. Lohse is 0-2 with a 6.97 ERA in two career postseason starts.

Matchup to Watch
In Game 4 of the NLDS against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Wolf struggled to get ahead of hitters, frequently putting himself in unfavorable counts. He started just five of the 19 hitters he faced with a first-pitch strike (26.3 percent), his lowest first-pitch strike percentage in 104 starts the last three seasons. Six of the seven runs Wolf allowed were driven in while he was behind in the count.

Getting ahead in the count was especially important for Wolf this year. In at-bats starting with a 1-0 count, opponents hit .308 and slugged .494 against Wolf, better than the league average of .272 and .438, respectively. When Wolf got ahead 0-1, opponents hits .209 with a .314 slugging percentage; the league as a whole hit .225 and slugged .341 after the count reached 0-1.

Stats of the Game
• The Cardinals have scored in the first inning in five straight postseason games. According to Elias, they are the fourth team to score in the first inning of at least five straight postseason games, joining the 2000 New York Mets (6), 2003 Chicago Cubs (5) and 2004 Boston Red Sox (5). The Brewers have been outscored 11-1 in the first inning of their three road postseason games.

• David Freese has 11 RBI in eight games this postseason, matching his RBI total for his last 22 regular season games.

• The Brewers are 4-1 at home but haven't been able to get the job done on the road as they're now winless in three road postseason games. Their bats have cooled off on the road as they're averaging just 3.3 runs per game, but the big reason for their failure has been pitching. At home, Brewers pitchers have a 4.89 ERA; on the road that number has ballooned to 7.88.

The circumstances are such for the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 3 of the NLCS that they don’t have many options as to how they can pitch to St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols. This is due to how he’s performed in the 2011 playoffs, as well as how he’s performed in the past against their pitcher on Wednesday night.

This postseason, Pujols has seen 61 fastballs (including cut fastballs and sinkers). He’s swung at 33 of them and those swings have netted 10 hits and just five outs.

It hasn’t mattered where Pujols has been pitched. If he sees a fastball, chances are good he’s going to do damage. He has four hits against them when they were out of the strike zone, most recently two of his three doubles in Monday’s rout of the Brewers.

The heat map above shows the areas in which he’s seen fastballs most frequently, with the red shading representing 30 pitches. He’s 8-for-12 against those 30 pitches.

Pujols is 10-for-his-last-18 against Brewers Game 3 starter Yovani Gallardo, including 6-for-11 this season with three home runs. On September 1, Pujols hit a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, against Gallardo in an 8-4 win that helped start the Cardinals surge into the postseason.

The grand slam came on a fastball above the top of the strike zone, but the other two home runs came on breaking balls just above the bottom of the strike zone. In fact, dating back to 2009, Pujols has five hits and has made just six outs against breaking pitches from Gallardo.

Inside the Series
The Cardinals went 5-4 at home against the Brewers this season, despite only scoring 25 runs in those nine games. Their most recent meeting was a 2-0 Cardinals shutout on September 7, in which Game 3 Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter went the distance on a four-hitter.

Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun went a combined 11-for-64 with one home run among the 20 fly balls that they hit at Busch Stadium this season. That five percent home run rate is a fraction of their home run rate at home (24 percent) during the regular season.

Keep an eye on how the Cardinals do when they get ahead in the count early. The Cardinals have feasted on 1-0 and 2-0 counts in this series. They were 3-for-3 against Brewers pitchers in those counts in Game 1, 4-for-6 in Game 2.

On the Mound
Chris Carpenter is 4-0 at home in his postseason career, the first Cardinal to win his first four postseason decisions at home. He’s 6-2 with a 2.94 ERA in his postseason career, including his win in the clinching Game 5 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yovani Gallardo has struck out 50 hitters in his last 34 ⅓ innings pitched dating back to the end of the regular season. In his last five starts, 31 of those 50 strikeouts have come with his breaking pitches.

Gallardo pitched eight innings of one-hit ball against the Cardinals on May 7.

Key Stat
Via the Elias Sports Bureau: In a seven-game series, teams who win Game 3 after being tied 1-1 have won the series 58 of 81 times. That includes a 21-8 record in the LCS.