John Gress / Reuters

Milwaukee's Prince Fielder celebrates his two-run home run with teammate Rickie Weeks in the fifth inning against St. Louis on Sunday.

Betancourt has taken plenty of criticism this season, but might be among the rare group of athletes who say they don't pay attention to the critics and actually mean it. Through an interpreter, Betancourt said he manages to avoid criticism because he doesn't speak much English.

"I don't really pay attention to what the critics say," Betancourt said.

With the score 8-5, Pujols came to the plate with runners on first and third and no outs in the seventh. Pujols broke his bat on a double-play grounder — a run scored, but the Brewers had limited the damage.

Betancourt doubled in the seventh and scored on a single by Jonathan Lucroy.

The Brewers and Cardinals split an 18-game series evenly this season, a sign of what has been one of baseball's most intense rivalries in recent years. The Cardinals' success against the Brewers in the final month of the season was one of the main reasons they climbed back into playoff contention.

St. Louis won six of its last seven games against Milwaukee, including a three-game sweep at Miller Park.

The animosity between the two teams spilled into this week, when Greinke told reporters Saturday that some of his teammates don't like Carpenter because of his "phony attitude."

Slideshow   Baseball's 2011 World Series Slideshow of the best images from the 2011 World Series games.

La Russa said he got an umpire's warning after Garcia hit Fielder with a pitch in the first inning, right after Braun's homer. But the Brewers said they didn't think the pitch was intentional, and La Russa said the team's recent history probably affects the umpires' attitudes.

"I certainly can't fault the umpire," La Russa said. "But, you know, you can't go out and argue those things, or you get thrown out. I didn't say anything. What I would have said is, if you watched the way Jaime pitched that whole inning, every fastball he threw was in that same area, out away from the right hander or in on Fielder. They just looked bad, but he was just trying to get the ball somewhere near the glove."

NOTES: Jackson struggled in his first outing with the Cardinals against the Brewers, giving up 10 runs (eight earned) in seven innings at Milwaukee Aug. 3. But he was better in two subsequent starts against the Brewers, allowing four runs (three earned) in 13 innings. ... Marcum is coming off a rough outing in the Brewers' Game 3 NL division series loss at Arizona, giving up seven runs in 4 2-3 innings.

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