When Shaun Marcum takes the mound tonight at Miller Park for the Brewers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, he'll be trying to recover from a poor showing in the NLDS.

With a chance to finish off a three-game sweep of the Diamondbacks, Marcum struggled from the outset. In 4.2 innings of work, Marcum was tagged for seven runs on seven hits, including a fifth-inning grand slam by Paul Goldschmidt.

It was the latest in a string of rocky starts for Marcum, who has lost four of his last five. His ERA during that stretch is a whopping 7.76 and he's allowed 39 hits in 29 innings of work, with 11 walks and six home runs.

Both Roenicke and Marcum say the numbers are somewhat misleading. Many of the hits he's allowed of late have been bloopers that have happened to fall in, but when those are followed by big hits and home runs, it's spelled doom for the right-hander, whose game is built around command and location.

"Early in the season he wasn't giving up any cheap hits, everything was located well," Roenicke said. "Now recently, if you look at all the hits he's given up, and he's made some mistakes, but he's given up a lot of seeing-eye ground balls that go through people. He's given up jam shots that bloop over somebody's head. Then the next thing you know he makes a bad pitch and they make a home run."

Acquired in the off-season from Toronto to bolster a lackluster pitching staff, Marcum was expected to form a hard-to-beat trio atop the rotation with Zack Greinke and Yovani Gallardo.

For much of the season, he looked every bit the part of a top-of-the-rotation starter, posting a 3.11 ERA in his first 29 starts while holding opposing hitters to a .211 average.

"He was our best pitcher for whatever that time period was at the beginning of the season," Roenicke said.

Marcum made four starts this season against St. Louis, posting a 1-1 record with a 4.15 ERA. In 26 innings, Marcum allowed 14 runs (12 earned) on 24 hits with 17 strikeouts, two walks and seven home runs while holding the Cardinals to a .235 batting average.

Three of those starts came in August, as the Cardinals began their push towards the National League wild card, so familiarity will definitely be a factor.

"They know what I'm going to do," Marcum. "I know what approach they're going to take for me. For me it's a matter of going out and locating, keeping the ball down. I do know what they're going to try to do. I do know what they're going to try to do against me. We're going to go back and forth.
I'm going to have to make adjustments, whether it's pitch by pitch or inning by inning."

Bullpen rested, ready: Should Marcum falter early, Roenicke will have a sharp and rested bullpen ready to take over. Brewers relievers have allowed just four runs in the postseason while putting in 20.1 innings of work through six games, good for a 1.77 ERA.

"I think the days off are real nice in the postseason, because you don't have to force a guy to go three days in a row, you probably have an off day in there," Roenicke said. "I feel good about rest and I feel good enough that they have enough work and that they're staying on top of their game."

The relief corps suffered a bit of a scare last night when John Axford was hit on a come-backer to end the game. Roenicke said the Brewers' closer would be ready and available if needed Monday night.

"He's OK," Roenicke said. "He went out and threw earlier, threw different pitches. So he's available tonight."

Hairston stays in the lineup: Roenicke admitted that he was "tempted" to put Casey McGehee in the Game 2 lineup against St. Louis starter Edwin Jackson.

In perhaps his best performance of an otherwise forgettable season, McGehee belted three home runs off the right-hander in a 10-5 Brewers victory Aug. 3 at Miller Park.

"It would have been real tempting to get him in there," Roenicke said. "I just don't know how to do it with (Jerry) Hairston, the way he's playing defensively and offensively. It's hard to take him out."

Hairston took over at third base at the start of the postseason and is batting .400 (6-for-20) with three doubles and three RBIs. McGehee has made three pinch-hit appearances and singled in Game 4 of the NLDS at Arizona.

"It's tough," Roenicke said. "I wish we could put one more player in that lineup. If we were in the American League, he'd be in there."