Milwaukee Brewers vs St. Louis Cardinals
When ? Sunday, October 16, 2011 – 04:05 pm
Where ? Miller Park
Pitchers: vs Jackson vs Marcum
“In the end, players decide, pitchers decide who plays,” La Russa said. “We’re all basically reading basically the same. We just have different weapons. When you watch the game tomorrow, the players will decide. “It’s not necessarily the formula for success you might lay out at the beginning of the series, but I think that just shows this team has come a long way from where we were in the beginning and middle part of the season, our bullpen is one of our strengths,” Cardinals right fielder said. “Those guys have done a tremendous job and at this point, it’s whatever it takes. If it takes a bullpen game again tomorrow, we’ll try to do that.” This series has been more about what comes next on the mound. “That’s, for me, one pitch that I have to use or I’m not going to be in the game that long,” Marcum said. Not that the Cardinals starters have been in the game very long, either. The rotation is 1-2 with a 6.04 ERA over 22 1/3 innings in the NLCS. The bullpen, which was shaky until midseason, has picked up the rest of the way. Milwaukee set a franchise-record with 96 wins this season, six more than the Cardinals, but the NL Central champions are on the brink of elimination because starters have stumbled. No one has been worse than Marcum, who has given up 30 runs in his last 33 innings dating to September. He allowed five runs in four innings in a 12-3 loss in Game 2 and is 0-2 with a 12.46 ERA in the postseason. Milwaukee’s bullpen — considered a strength after posting a 1.14 ERA in 71 innings in September — has given up nine runs in 15 1/3 innings of LCS play. “This is definitely the biggest game of my career, probably all the guys in the clubhouse, too, except for the few that have won the World Series,” Marcum said. “Definitely a big game, but it’s baseball. It’s another game. You just got to take it at that. We can’t put too much pressure on ourselves.” “I think I’m on the bandwagon with everybody in here, probably everybody in the country that wants to see Yo versus Carp in Game 7,” Marcum said. “I’m going to try to get the ball to Yo.” St. Louis has taken the lead in every game of the series and the Cardinals bullpen is 2-0 with a 1.66 ERA in 21 2/3 innings over the first five games. Manager Tony La Russa has made 23 pitching changes using all eight of his relievers. Milwaukee committed four errors for the first time all season in a 7-1 loss in Game 5 on Friday night and fell an error shy of the LCS record of five in a game shared by the 1974 Dodgers and 1976 Yankees. The Brewers can’t repeat that performance if they have any hope of extending the series to a deciding Game 7. “Edwin’s going to decide how far he goes. It depends on how he’s pitching. I don’t go in thinking let’s get 5 1/3 from him. I don’t think anything. I just watch the game.” “He knows how to push the right buttons. You can say what you want, but it’s worked so far. He knows so many stats and so many numbers and situations, this and that, everything he does, he does it for a reason,” Motte said. “We go out there, the way I look at it, the phone rings, we’re ready to go. It doesn’t matter what inning.” The NL winner hosts the World Series opener against Texas or Detroit on Wednesday night. Summary of the match will be on site soon..