ST. LOUIS — Zack Greinke was dealing - and I mean dealing - in the third inning Friday night at Busch Stadium. Greinke, so good he once won a Cy Young Award with the woebegone Kansas City Royals, did not allow the Cardinals a runner in the first inning or the second inning.

The Los Angeles Dodgers' righthander looked so almighty dominant that when left fielder Carl Crawford doubles to lead off the visitors' third inning and moves to third on a right-side grounder, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny reflexively constricted his infield. The move became moot when ratcheted Cardinals starting pitcher Joe Kelly walked the bases drunk with one out and allowed third baseman Mike Schmidt - oops, make that Juan Uribe - hit a two-run, two-out single for a 2-0 lead.

In the first game of the National League championship series one tends to look for tells. And it immediately becomes obvious that the Cardinals greatly respect a Dodgers rotation that sends Cy Young Award recipients to the mound in postseason Games 1 and 2. (That hadn't occurred since 1991 when Tom Glavine and John Smoltz started for the Atlanta Braves. One difference: neither Glavine nor Smoltz had yet to win his award.)

Game 1 should have been Greinke's, but it went to Cardinals right fielder Carlos BeltrGame 1 should have been Greinke's, but it went to Cardinals right fielder Carlos Beltranan. Greinke controlled the game for its first eight innings but was left with an unsatisfying tie because of Beltran's two-run, third-inning double. Then there was Beltran's assist to cut down the go-ahead run at the plate in the 10th. Three innings later Beltran roped a single inside the right-field line to score Daniel Descalso with the winning run in a 3-2 theft of the NLCS opener.

"Zack was really good and (I) probably could have kept going with him," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He was really good tonight."

Greinke outpitched Kelly. But he couldn't overcome his hitters' one-for-10 performance with runners in scoring position or his manager's curious decision to remove his cleanup hitter for a pinch-runner in the eighth inning.

"We can look back on every decision and decide to go the other way," Mattingly said when pressed about the decision to pinch-run Dee Gordon for Gonzalez.

The Dodgers lost when given a gem by their co-ace. Greinke faced the Cardinals in the 2011 NLCS as a midseason acquisition with the Milwaukee Brewers. He nonchalantly noted before his Game 1 appearance that several teammates thought Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter "a phony."

Greinke, 30, is that way. He works matter-of-factly and speaks without a filter.

Former Cardinals Skip Schumaker asked Greinke to assess him as a hitter upon his trade to the Dodgers. Greinke informed Schumaker he stunk. Greinke isn't malicious, just incapable of spreading bovine manure. It's perhaps one reason why the Brewers didn't mind him speaking infrequently to media.

Those analyzing this series through Cardinal-colored shades recall that Greinke stunk up two starts against the Cardinals that October. He got a messy win in return for allowing six runs in six innings in Game 1 then took a strange loss at Busch in Game 5 in return for two earned runs and three more resulting from leaky defense. He allowed 12 earned runs in fewer than 17 innings that postseason.

That seems ages ago. Greinke since has been dealt to the Dodgers and signed a fat contract as a free agent to return there. Greinke might be portrayed as merely another left coast mercenary in the contrived morality play called Dodgers-Cardinals. He did what most free agents do. He took the heaviest offer and pushed his team to the postseason. He has helped right a franchise recently devastated by internal intrigue. He and several other well-compensated teammates have transformed the Dodgers from a punch line into the betting favorite to win the World Series entering the league championship series round.

In Greinke's final 12 regular-season starts he lasted at least six innings 11 times while refusing more than two earned runs in all 12. The surge dropped his overall ERA from 3.49 to 2.63. He crafted a 1.58 ERA during the stretch.

Clayton Kershaw, today's LA starter, will win the NL Cy Young Award next month. Bet your mortgage on it. Heck, bet my mortgage on it. But Greinke was the Dodgers' best pitcher in September. The Cardinals beat Kershaw twice this season while losing to Greinke in an Aug. 5 cameo. Greinke entered Friday 7-1 with a 1.99 ERA in his last eight starts against the Redbirds. Advanced metrics confirm that as very good.

Now he's working in the bottom of the third inning with a two-run lead against a team that batted .209 in its five-game escape against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a division series.

Along the way Shelby Miller warmed for the Cardinals - his first time on a mound in a week.

Several innings later Lance Lynn also warmed, extending the suspense about who the Cardinals will send against Ricky Nolasco in Game 4. Lynn worked the final two innings to gain the win.

Even before the game we were treated to a small revelation. Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said injured first baseman Allen Craig could be available should his club reach the World Series. Yet Craig was the only player who did not run to the first-base line when introduced pregame.

Greinke dismissed the first hitters he faces before encountering Kelly, who takes an Ichiro-like half-step toward Greinke's first pitch before threading his fourth for a two-out single.

Greinke worked from the stretch for the first time. He fed second baseman Matt Carpenter two strikes before he feels like a snack. Greinke begins to nibble, missing with two, then three consecutive pitches.

Carpenter, who entered the plate appearance one for 20 in October, then worked a walk to represent the tying run. It is Greinke's only walk but it wasn't forgiven.

Facing a runner in scoring position for the first time, Greinke quickly trailed Beltran. In October that is stepping on Superman's cape. Greinke's fourth offering to Beltran within a 25-pitch inning resulted in the ball being drilled off the center field wall for a two-run double.

The ball was down and away but Beltran somehow turned into a power ball. The shot came in one of the Cardinals' only two at-bats against Greinke with a runner in scoring position.

The quick lapse was enough to leave Greinke tied when the less precise Kelly exited after six innings.

Greinke remained as Matheny wheeled Randy Choate, Seth Maness and Carlos Martinez in to work the seventh and eighth innings. The Cardinals' bullpen began to stir in the third inning. Greinke walked to the mound in the eighth with no one warming in the visitors' pen.

Greinke buzzed through the eighth by getting a infield fly before striking out pinch-hitter Adron Chambers and Carpenter looking.

Of the 28 hitters Greinke faced, 10 struck out. Four managed hits. Two reached third base. After Beltran's double he faced one more than the minimum number of hitters.

It was good enough to earn a 2-2 draw on a night when Greinke's dominance contrasted Kelly walking a high wire without a safety net.

"Joe did not have his best stuff tonight," Matheny conceded.

No one ever said October is fair.