The bumbling Brewers made four errors that led to three unearned runs, and the St. Louis Cardinals survived a short start by Jaime Garcia to beat Milwaukee 7-1 Friday night and take a 3-2 lead in the NL championship series.

Yadier Molina and Matt Holliday had three hits each for St. Louis, which burst to a 3-0 lead in the second when Molina doubled in a run and third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr. allowed Garcia’s grounder to go through his legs. Holliday capped the scoring with a two-run double in the eighth.

“We just keep finding ways to win,” Holliday said. “It’s a team, it’s a group effort. It’s never one guy.”

Milwaukee’s infield nearly had a cycle of errors, with second baseman Rickie Weeks and shortstop Yuniesky Betancourt also committing miscues along with reliever Marco Estrada. Weeks had committed the Brewers’ only two errors in the first four games of the series.

“You give these guys extra outs and they are going to hurt you,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

The Cardinals have won 14 straight games on getaway days, a run that began on Aug. 7 at Florida. The win gave players another opportunity to chant “Happy Flight! Happy Flight!”

St. Louis can wrap up the best-of-seven series and its 18th NL pennant on Sunday in Milwaukee. Edwin Jackson goes for the Cardinals against Shaun Marcum in a rematch of pitchers from Game 2, won by St. Louis 12-3 as neither starter received a decision.

The NL winner hosts the World Series opener against Detroit or Texas on Wednesday.

“We’re having a good series right now and, hopefully, we can do it for one more game,” Molina said.

Milwaukee had not made more than three errors in a game during the regular season, but the Brewers’ sloppiness reached a near-record level. Milwaukee was one shy of the LCS record for errors in a game, shared by the 1974 Los Angeles Dodgers and 1976 New York Yankees, according to STATS LLC.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa had a quick hook once again. Garcia opened with four scoreless innings, then allowing three hits and a sacrifice in a span of four at-bats in the fifth, with Corey Hart singling in a run. With two and on and two outs, Octavio Dotel relieved and struck out Braun.

Dotel (1-0) struck out two in 1 1/3 hitless innings, combining with three other relievers for 4 1/3 innings of scoreless, two-hit relief. Jason Motte got four outs for his second save of the series, leaving Cardinals relievers 2-0 with a 1.66 ERA in 22 2/3 innings. St. Louis starters are 1-2 with a 6.04 ERA.

Only one St. Louis starter has lasted long enough to qualify for a victory, with Chris Carpenter working five innings in Game 3. The previous team to have a starter not pitch into the sixth in the first five games of a postseason series was the 1984 San Diego Padres in the World Series, according to STATS.

With Milwaukee down 5-1 and trying to rally with two on in the eighth, lefty Marc Rzepczynski relieved and struck out Prince Fielder.

Fielder is 0 for 4 with four strikeouts and two walks against Rzepczynski.

Zack Greinke (1-1) left pitches over the plate in some key spots and allowed five runs — just two earned — and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings with no strikeouts and two walks.

Hart had three hits, breaking out from a 1 for 12 start to the series.

St. Louis had been hitless in 15 at-bats with runners in scoring position — and 22 at-bats with runners on base — before Molina’s RBI double off the right-field fence. Hart just missed on a leaping attempt at the right field fence.

Hairston saved at least one run at third base with a spectacular diving catch to his left on Nick Punto’s low liner for the second out. But when he botched Garcia’s easy grounder, St. Louis was up 3-0.

Garcia’s RBI groundout made it 4-0 in he fourth, the first RBI by a Cardinals pitcher in the postseason since Jeff Suppan homered in the 2006 NLCS against the Mets.

Albert Pujols had an RBI single in the sixth to chase Greinke.

— Associated Press —

Power pitching often dominates in the postseason. Soft tosses by Randy Wolf got the Milwaukee Brewers back to even in the NL championship series.

The 35-year-old lefty outfoxed the St. Louis Cardinals for seven innings to earn his first postseason win and the Brewers got two more hits from Ryan Braun in a 4-2 victory Thursday night that evened the NL championship series at 2-all.

“It was a big feeling just to be back out there again after my last start,” said Wolf, hit hard by Arizona to force a deciding Game 5 in the first round of the playoffs. “Just to be able to get another opportunity to pitch again was important.

“You know, I’ll be honest with you, the day after the Diamondbacks start, I didn’t eat or shower that day,” he said.”

Flipping some pitches in the mid-60s mph, Wolf allowed two runs and six hits, striking out six with one walk.

Matt Holliday and Allen Craig homered for the Cardinals, representing their only runs in the last 16 innings.

“I think it’s classic because playing each other so many times, we’re dead even,” manager Tony La Russa said. “It comes down to that day, who makes the pitch.”

Francisco Rodriguez allowed a hit in the eighth and John Axford finished for his second save of the series and third this postseason.

The Brewers ended an eight-game road losing streak in the postseason dating to the 1982 World Series opener at St. Louis. And Wolf ended a lengthy drought of his own — before Thursday, his 342 starts without a postseason victory were the most among active pitchers.

Game 4 loser Kyle Lohse moves to second on the list at 298 starts, trailing only Ted Lilly’s 318.

Jaime Garcia faces Zack Greinke for the second time in the series in Game 5 Friday night. Either way, the NLCS will be decided back at Miller Park.

“We’re pretty much the only team that’s played pretty well in Milwaukee. Flip the page and hopefully come back to tomorrow. It’s a great series. Nobody is going to run away,” Cardinals star Albert Pujols said.

Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled twice with an RBI and Wolf hit one of the Brewers’ five doubles. Braun is batting .471 (16 for 34) in the postseason with two homers and nine RBIs.

The Cardinals needed more heavy duty from their bullpen, too, after Lohse, pitching on 12 days’ rest, failed to make it out of the fifth.

“I’m not going to blame it on the layoff,” Lohse said. “We’re professionals and we’ve got get the job done. Tonight, we didn’t do it.”

Pujols was a quiet 1 for 4 for St. Louis, which was 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and is 0 for 15 after the first inning of Game 3.

“They have good pitching, but we have good pitching, too,” Hairston said. “They’ve been good for us all year long.”

Wolf kept the Cardinals off-balance with soft tosses and retired 13 of his last 15 hitters in his fourth career postseason start. It was a huge improvement from Game 4 of the NL division series at Arizona in which he surrendered seven runs in three innings.

Wolf also struggled in his last two regular season starts, allowing 10 runs in 11 2/3 innings.

“Regardless of how the game went, I was satisfied with the fact that I was going to have that opportunity,” Wolf said. “It’s kind of a weird word, but it’s redemption to go back out there.”

For the fourth straight game, the Cardinals had to lean heavily on their relievers. Lohse sailed through three innings and then allowed three doubles and three runs to his last eight hitters, and was charged with three runs in 4 1/3 innings.

St. Louis relievers have worked 17 1/3 innings in the series.

Two of La Russa’s moves paid off. Bumped down one spot to fifth, Holliday hit his first postseason homer and doubled.

Craig started in place of Lance Berkman, who was 3 for 32 lifetime against Wolf and had a minor right thigh bruise from getting hit by a pitch in Game 3. Craig hit his first career postseason homer made it 2-0 in the third.

The Brewers tied it in the fourth with their first runs since the third inning of Game 3 on doubles by Prince Fielder and Jerry Hairston Jr. and an RBI single by Yuniesky Betancourt.

Lohse was pulled after Nyjer Morgan doubled to start the fifth and advanced on a groundout, the heart of the order coming up. Braun’s single off Mitchell Boggs put the Brewers in front although second baseman Ryan Theriot’s sprawling stop transformed Fielder’s smash into an inning-ending double play.

Rickie Weeks singled and Hairston doubled again to open the sixth, and the Brewers soon had a two-run cushion. George Kottaras hit a grounder against a drawn-in infield off Arthur Rhodes, and Theriot bobbled the ball on a short hop for an error.

The Cardinals’ streak of scoring in the first inning ended at five games when they went down in order against Wolf, but they hurt the left-hander with opposite-field power the next two innings. Wolf fell behind the count to six of the first 14 hitters and the Cardinals were 4 for 5 with two homers, a double, single and walk.

— Associated Press —

The Milwaukee Brewers hoped Yovani Gallardo would settle down and stop the St. Louis Cardinals.

Instead, he went wild.

Albert Pujols hit an RBI double during a four-run first inning against Gallardo and the Brewers never quite recovered, dropping to the Cardinals 4-3 Wednesday night and falling into a 2-1 deficit in the NL championship series.

“When you make mistakes like we did the first inning, they’re going to get their hits, they’re going to score some runs,” Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said.

Gallardo, who’s 1-7 with a career 5.66 ERA against the Cardinals, trailed 2-0 after his first 12 pitches and barely made it out of the opening inning.

The 17-game winner walked three, one of them intentional, and the Brewers had Chris Narveson up in the bullpen before Yadier Molina grounded into a run-scoring double play for Gallardo’s first outs.

Gallardo trudged to the dugout after his 33-pitch ordeal that included RBI doubles by Jon Jay and David Freese.

“I think I made a good pitch to Jay,” Gallardo said. “I tried to go up and in with a fastball and I was able to do that and he just hit it out to the outfield. And to Pujols, it might have been a little bit up and over the plate but I thought it was a good pitch.”

In all, Gallardo lasted five innings and gave up eight hits, walked five (two intentional) and tied an NLCS record with three wild pitches. He struck out two.

The Cardinals’ 4-0 lead seemed as if it would be plenty with ace Chris Carpenter pitching. It was, barely, thanks in large part to a 12-up-and-12-down performance by the St. Louis bullpen.

Four relievers — Fernando Salas, Lance Lynn, Marc Rzepczynski and Jason Motte — were perfect over the final four innings.

Milwaukee chipped away at Carpenter with two runs in the second on singles by Rickie Weeks, Jerry Hairston Jr. and Yuniesky Betancourt, and a sacrifice fly by Gallardo. Mark Kotsay’s homer leading off the third made it a one-run game.

Carpenter, coming off a shutout against Philadelphia in the deciding game of the divisional series, wasn’t nearly as sharp this time.

“We got to 4-3 and I felt good,” Roenicke said. “I felt we were going to score some more runs.”

Carpenter labored through five innings, giving up six hits and walking three (one intentional) and striking out three.

“It was a battle all night long,” Carpenter said. “My stuff was OK, but these guys worked me hard.”

The Brewers had runners on base in every inning against him. Weeks struck out with two on to end the fifth. But Milwaukee couldn’t touch the St. Louis bullpen.

“It’s not going to work very often that you can put four zeros against their offense,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Jason Motte, who had two saves lasting more than inning in September, and another in Game 2 of the division series at Philadelphia, got four outs for this save. He fanned pinch-hitter Casey McGehee to end it.

Carpenter won his seventh postseason game to tie Bob Gibson’s franchise record, but with none of the brilliance of his three-hit win over Roy Halladay and the favored Phillies in Game 5 of the first round. Nearly half of his 89 pitches were balls.

The starters’ ineffectiveness was surprising considering their track records.

Carpenter has been clutch throughout his career in the postseason, going 7-2 with a 3.14 ERA in 12 games. Gallardo allowed only two runs in 21 innings, a minuscule 0.86 ERA, before Game 3.

Kyle Lohse, pitching on 12 days’ rest, starts Game 4 Thursday for the wild-card Cardinals against Randy Wolf.

The Cardinals batted around against Gallardo in the first. Pujols delivered an RBI double after starring in a Game 2 win with a home run and three doubles.

St. Louis had its chances to break away later, but hit into three double plays and stranded nine runners.

Luckily for the Brewers, Carpenter didn’t have his “A” game, either. He walked none in that gem against the Phillies, but already had a walk and a hit batsman in the Brewers’ first three plate appearances.

Carpenter escaped with help from Kotsay, who strayed too far off second on Prince Fielder’s lineout to center and was doubled off the bag by Jay’s strong throw to end the inning.

Kotsay got a spot start in place of Nyjer Morgan, partly because he’s 4 for 11 against Carpenter. Morgan flied out to start the seventh as a pinch hitter and was roundly booed throughout the at-bat.

Ryan Braun and Fielder each entered the game hitting .500 in the NLCS with a combined seven RBIs. They were a combined 1 for 6 with no runs or RBIs Wednesday.

“We competed,” Braun said. “We had plenty of chances. It’s a tough game and just get ready for tomorrow.