2011 NLCS: Whose Ace Is the Best?

The St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers are even at one game a piece in this best-of-seven series which decides who will get their chance at the World Series.

Remember, the winner of this series will have home-field advantage in the World Series due to the National League winning the All-Star Game, but Game 3 may very well decide who wins this series.

Every team currently in the playoffs has had a stopper who could stop the bleeding of any losing streak.

The Cardinals have veteran Chris Carpenter while the Brewers' Yovani Gallardo has ace stuff of his own. Who is the better pitcher and does it go without saying that whoever wins this battle can end up winning the National League pennant?

Chris Carpenter

Chris Carpenter threw the gem of his life when it mattered most. In Game 5 of the NLDS against the Philadelphia Phillies, Carpenter out pitched the two-time Cy Young winner himself Roy Halladay.

Carpenter dethroned the so-called champs as the Phillies were seemingly destined to win the World Series with one of the most talented starting rotations in the past several decades. 

Winning over 100 games showed the Phillies were no joke as they just kept winning and winning. However, they ran into a buzzsaw with Carpenter and the Cards.

The former Blue Jay put together a masterpiece in which he threw a complete game three-hit shutout allowing no walks and striking out three.

He was economical as well throwing only 110 pitches in route to his Cardinals coming within one more step of reaching the promise land.

Yovani Gallardo

Gallardo has only throw 21 innings in the postseason for his career, but he has had his fair share of gems as well, posting a career ERA of 0.86 while allowing only two runs and 14 hits!

He has struck out 18 while walking eight and let us not forget he is just 25 years old. The Brewers have been nearly unstoppable when Yovani has taken the mound, and if he throws a few more gems we may very well see Milwaukee in their first World Series as a National League team.

Final Verdict

If you thought Gallardo has a good postseason career wait until you see Carpenter's numbers for the Cardinals.

In 70.1 innings pitched, Carpenter is 6-2 while posting a 2.94 ERA along with 43 punchouts. The Cardinals had a masterpiece from Carpenter in the 2006 World Series where he threw eight shutout innings. 

He did struggle in the 2009 NLDS against the Dodgers, allowing four runs in five innings.

The 36-year-old veteran has been there and done that before and still has a few great outings in his arm left. While Gallardo's future looks bright and while I would not bet against him, Carpenter at the end of the day gets the slight edge since he will be pitching Game 3 at home.

Just because Carpenter can out-duel Gallardo, it does not necessarily mean that the Cardinals are on their way to their 18th World Series appearance.  I still stand by my prediction of the Brewers winning this series in six games, though the Miller Park faithful may have to defeat Carpenter in a possible seventh game scenario.