The Central Division championship has been won, and home-field advantage has been clinched. The only things left for the St. Louis Cardinals are staying sharp and getting or staying healthy.

They'll start Friday night, when they travel to Milwaukee to open a three-game series against the Brewers in their final road series of the season.

St. Louis, which has lost three of its past four since clinching the division championship last Saturday, needs three wins over the last eight games to record back-to-back 100-win seasons. The only other St. Louis teams to accomplish that were the 1942-1944 Cardinals.

Right-hander Chris Carpenter will try to take another step toward becoming the first St. Louis pitcher to win a Cy Young Award since Bob Gibson in 1970. Gibson, the only Cardinals pitcher to win the Cy Young, actually won two, the first in 1968. Carpenter (21-4) still has a shot at the ERA crown with a 2.42 figure. He'll be opposed by Chris Capuano (17-10).

Pitching matchup
STL: RHP Chris Carpenter
• 21-4, 2.42 ERA in 2005
• 2-0, 3.77 ERA in 2005 vs. MIL

MIL: LHP Chris Capuano
• 17-10, 3.64 ERA in 2005
• 2-0, 4.63 ERA in 2005 vs. STL

Player to watch
Albert Pujols hasn't hit a home run since Sept. 8. He needs one more to reach 200 for his career, which would make him the third-youngest player in history to reach 200, behind Mel Ott and Eddie Mathews. His next homer also will be his 40th of the season, making him the only Cardinal other than Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby in 1922 to hit at least 40 homers and steal at least 15 bases in one season.

Quotable
"The reality of it is, if trying hard was enough, guys like me would still be playing. I tried hard." -- manager Tony La Russa, on reliever Ray King, who's lost his last two appearances despite working hard to figure out his problems

On the Internet
 MLB.TV
 Gameday Audio
• Gameday
• Official game notes

On television
• STL: FSN/Midwest
• MIL: FSN

On radio
• STL: KMOX 1120 AM
• MIL: WTMJ 620 AM

Quick hits
The Cardinals are 6-0 at Miller Park this season after going 4-3 in Milwaukee last season. ... Yadier Molina has a career-high seven-game hitting streak and has eight hits in his past 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position. ... David Eckstein also has a seven-game hitting streak.

On deck
• Saturday: at Milwaukee, 6:05 p.m. CT
• Sunday: at Milwaukee, 1:05 p.m. CT
• Tuesday: vs. Houston, 7:10 p.m. CT