Cardinals have a huge advantage playing back at home

ST. LOUIS — Disneyland is a long way from the Gateway Arch.

The Dodgers and Cardinals are back in the heartland, and for the Cardinals, being home makes all the difference.

Sure, the Dodgers and Adrian Gonzalez would like nothing better than to double up the Gateway Arch and make it into one gigantic set of Mickey Mouse ears. But they're not in Hollywood anymore, it's back to Heartland Hardball.

This is where Hanley Ramirez got a pitch stuck in his ribs. This is where the Cardinals won the first two games of the NLCS by the slimmest of margins, doing what they had to do. This is where their solid baseball approach works best, carrying them to a 54-27 home record this season.

The Cardinals say they are not going to choke this time around.

Last October they lost the last three games of the NLCS, the last two in San Francisco. California has not been kind to them.

But Busch Stadium has been. And this October, when the Cardinals need one win to move onto the World Series, they are at home.

They will pitch rookie sensation Michael Wacha on Friday night against ace of aces Clayton Kershaw.

They are feeling good about their solid old school approach to the game. Leave the showboating to others. Leave the "Mickey Mouse stuff'' to Gonzalez and Yasiel Puig.

Gonzalez had his fun, giving himself Mickey Mouse ears as he approached the dugout after the first of two home runs in the Dodgers' 6-4 Game 5 victory in Los Angeles, but now the Cardinals plan on taking care of business their way — they had better or else this team will be known as chokers.

"We've been very consistent on how we think about this,'' manager Mike Matheny said Thursday about the Cardinals most serious baseball approach, "and we understand it's our responsibility to take care of ourselves. That is a big responsibility and we have a lot to take care of. We're going to stay there.

"Other teams are going to do whatever they need to do in order to prepare themselves and have their guys ready,'' Matheny added. "As far as evaluating clubs, it's our job to evaluate ourselves on a daily basis to make sure we are going about it the way we want to go about it. It's not our right and responsibility to dictate how other teams go about theirs.''

You can be sure the Dodgers' antics have rubbed the Cardinals the wrong way.

"As far as getting under our guys' skin, our guys want to compete,'' Matheny said. "We're not out there to make friends. We're not out there to do anything except win. That is our job.''

Though most of the Cardinals players said they did not see Gonzalez's gesture, you can be sure everyone has seen the replay by now.

Adam Wainwright, who is waiting in the wings if there is a Game 7, said after Game 5 he saw Gonzalez do his thing, but would not disclose what he thought about the gesture.

Wainwright was the one who brought up the whole Mickey Mouse comparison and now it is the Dodgers who are running with it.

David Freese said the Cardinals have one mission and that is to get to the World Series, especially for Carlos Beltran, who is playing in his fourth NLCS and searching for his first trip to the World Series.

"We're going to come out Friday and try to finish this thing off,'' Freese said. "We have to be in attack mode. You can't be on your heels. We have a different team this year. We're home, that is a big plus. We're ready to go.''

Noted Wacha, "It's huge having home-field advantage.''

The Cardinals have fun their own way. When a question began: "With Kershaw lined up to pitch Game 6,'' Freese suddenly did a double-take and asked, "He's throwing Game 6?''

That was his way of saying the Cardinals are ready again for Kershaw, who is 0-3 against St. Louis this year.

Not quite as entertaining as Mickey Mouse ears, but the Cardinals are ready to win this series their way, back in the heartland.

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