Tony La Russa is one year removed from managing the St. Louis Cardinals, but that doesn’t mean he’s any less intense about the game. He’s a consultant for Major League Baseball now, and in that capacity, the longtime skipper says he has to be neutral.

Lance Berkman shrugs his shoulders when someone mentions that Carlos Beltran is bashing his way through another postseason. Berkman has seen it before.

They have the big bats in the middle of the lineup, but the little bats at the bottom of the order have also done a marvelous job for the Cardinals the last few games.

A stellar bullpen stand ensured the Cardinals would exit Sunday with a 6-4 win over the Giants to open the National League Championship Series.

Robinson Cano is the only player in big league history to go hitless as long as he has — 26 straight at-bats — in one postseason, but he stood at his locker after Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Tigers in Game 2 of the ALCS and insisted he remains positive.

Maybe the catching gear should be called the Tools of Intelligence, not the Tools of Ignorance. All four managers in the LCS are former catchers

Yankees captain Derek Jeter will not travel with the team when the American League Championship Series shifts scenes to Detroit’s Comerica Park for Tuesday’s Game 3. Jeter had an MRI exam and CT scan on Sunday that confirmed the initial diagnosis of a left ankle fracture.

Justin Verlander, fresh of setting the Division Series strikeout record, will take the hill in Game 3 of the ALCS with a chance to put the Tigers one win from the World Series.

Hiroki Kuroda was perfect for five innings, but Anibal Sanchez was better, shutting down the Yankees in a 3-0 victory to give the Tigers a two-game lead as the ALCS heads to Detroit.

Derek Jeter is out for the rest of the postseason after fracturing his left ankle in the Yankees’ 6-4 loss to the Tigers on Saturday night.

Raul Ibanez became the first player in Major League history to have three home runs in the ninth inning or later in a single postseason when hit a two-run, game-tying homer in the ninth inning of Game 1 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday.

In Northern California, the last two World Series champions will play against each other. And if this series is anything as dramatic as the first round of the playoffs, it will be worth the price of admission.

The Giants’ workout at AT&T Park on Saturday had a frightening interruption when first-base coach Roberto Kelly was hit in the back of the head by a line drive from Buster Posey, who was taking batting practice.

The Giants are not considering the addition of left fielder Melky Cabrera to the roster for the National League Championship Series against St. Louis, manager Bruce Bochy said Saturday.

The Giants say they have every reason to believe left-hander Madison Bumgarner is on track to set a positive tone in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals on Sunday.

Derek Jeter will remain at 200 career postseason hits until at least next October after a fractured left ankle cost him the remainder of the playoffs on Saturday, hours after he became the first player in baseball history to record 200 postseason hits.

When Tigers manager Jim Leyland says he has never had a better performance in a postseason than Justin Verlander’s complete-game four-hitter, it’s more than mere flattery.