Both Beast and Bird prevailed in elimination games on Friday, setting up an unlikely National League Championship Series between NL Central foes that have fueled an intense rivalry all season.

If you're looking for signs of how Rangers left-hander Derek Holland has matured over the course of the past year since his first postseason experience, perhaps his upper lip is a bad place to start.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa doesn't much care whether the roof at Miller Park is open or closed on Sunday, but he said Saturday that he's heard it will be open.

There will be no love lost when the Brewers and Cardinals square off in this year's National League Championship Series. These two division rivals became very familiar with each other as they split 18 games during the regular season.

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa confirmed on Saturday that his club has set its rotation for the National League Championship Series, starting on Sunday at Miller Park. Unlike La Russa's rotation for the NL Division Series against the Phillies, it contains no real surprises.

Tigers infielder Danny Worth always wanted to score tickets to see a playoff game in person. He'll instead take in his first as a member of the active roster.

Skip Schumaker felt worse on Saturday than he did on Friday night, and as a result, he is expected to be left off the Cardinals' roster for the National League Championship Series. That's one of two changes the Cards are likely to make to the roster that they used to beat the Phillies in the NL Division Series.

The typically reserved Zack Greinke let his humorous personality surface a day ahead of Sunday's National League Championship Series opener against the Cardinals, in which he'll take the mound at Miller Park.

Max Scherzer knows his arm. Jim Leyland knows Max Scherzer. Ergo, the Detroit manager has apologetically adjusted his rotation, slotting in the 27-year-old righty as his starter in Sunday's Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

Friday night's pitcher's duel between Chris Carpenter and Roy Halladay during the the National League Division Series proved to be must-see TV.

St. Louis Cardinals teams managed by Tony La Russa are typically intrepid, indomitable and, most of the time, in the postseason. The 2011 version qualifies on all fronts.

Delmon Young's strained left oblique will keep him out of the American League Championship Series. The Tigers made it official on Saturday, when they left Young off their roster and replaced him with infielder Danny Worth.

The Rangers decided on the extra reliever for the American League Championship Series, and they went with Yoshinori Tateyama over Darren O'Day when they submitted their ALCS roster on Saturday morning.

Not needing to use Zack Greinke in relief for Game 5 of the National League Division Series made things a lot easier for Brewers manager Ron Roenicke.

Call him the Brewers' lucky charm. For the fourth time in Craig Counsell's career on Friday night, his team won a winner-take-all playoff game in walk-off fashion.

For the first time in Division Series history, the four teams that advanced to the League Championship Series featured negative run differentials.

Righty Daniel Gil of the Class A Tampa Bay Yankees and Phillies pitchers Ronald Mendez and Audrys Mora have been suspended for violating the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.