There are a lot of misused splits when people try to analyze the postseason, but one of the ones I truly believe in is the split that indicates that Albert Pujols crushes right-handed pitching. Maybe it's a small sample -- a decade or so -- but it really looks like he's a player who hits righties hard. Lefties, too. Pitchers, mostly.

With that in mind, it's probably not a surprise that Pujols was nonplussed by Shaun Marcum's fastball, crushing it over the left-field fence for a 2-0 lead. It's the second straight game in which the Cardinls have jumped out to an early lead, and it's the third straight Marcum start in which he's been drubbed early. Jon Jay, with one out, set up the homer with a perfect bunt single.

If you go back to Marcum's last regular-season game against the Pirates, he's given up 16 earned runs in his last 10⅓ innings. Brett Lawrie could have done that.

But after a walk to Matt Holliday, the Brewers got out of the inning on a strike-'em-out, throw-'em-out double play when Tony La Russa worried you weren't paying attention to who was managing.