In a close game, this probably isn't how you want your reliever to start an inning:

Pow! Right in the butt! Take that, Fat Elvis!

But Yadier Molina flew out to former MVP-vote-getter and current beast-among-men Mark Kotsay in right for the first out, and then David Freese grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning and preserve the manageable one-run deficit.

It's all about the bullpen match-ups from here on out, and you know how Tony La Russa hates that. As of this writing, the Brewers are just four outs away from falling in the game, after Marc Rczypzicscki struck out Prince Fielder in the eighth. And, say, is that another reliever coming in for La Russa? Hold on there, Tony! You'll go blind if you keep doing that!

A win would give the Cardinals a 2-1 series lead in the NLCS, which considering how they were 10 games back from a playoff berth just a few weeks ago, isn't a bad place to be.