ST. LOUIS » When last St. Louis Cardinals rookie Kolten Wong was on the field at Busch Stadium in a playoff game he walked to the dugout slowly, staring down at the ground in disbelief at what he had just done as teammates walked off and the fans fell silent.

On Monday, the fans’ cheers couldn’t bring him back from the dugout fast enough for his first October curtain call.

A year after being picked off at first base to end Game 4 of the World Series, Wong picked up the Cardinals with a home run that puts them on the brink of a fourth consecutive National League Championship Series. Wong turned on the first pitch he saw in the seventh inning to launch the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers. In front of 47,574, the largest baseball crowd in the nine-year history of Busch Stadium, the Cardinals took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

They can become the first National League team since the 1990s Atlanta Braves to appear in four consecutive NLCS with a win Tuesday afternoon in Game 4. To avoid elimination and send the series back to L.A., the Dodgers will turn to ace Clayton Kershaw on short rest.

Against the lefty Kershaw in Game 1, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny started righthanded-hitting Pete Kozma at second base. He went with a similar lineup Monday against lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu — with one exception. Wong, a lefthanded batter, got the start at second base. The last time he appeared in a playoff game at home was when he came on the field with one out to pinch-run for Allen Craig. With Carlos Beltran at the plate, Wong was picked off cleanly at first to end the game and give Boston the win. The young infielder was in tears after the game. His manager said they’ve watched all season as he learned to not be undone by mishaps.

"That pickoff last year definitely crushed me for a long time throughout the offseason," Wong said. "But it was something that I definitely look back and I’m not thankful for it, but I know it made me stronger as a person and as a player.

"Once you go through something like that, everything else is a walk in the park."

After the Cardinals took a 1-0 lead on Matt Carpenter’s third homer of the series, the Dodgers tied it in the sixth inning.

Heavy rain fell briefly in the bottom of the seventh, when Yadier Molina greeted lefty reliever Scott Elbert with a double for his second hit. Molina advanced on a sacrifice before Wong drove the next pitch, an 89 mph slider, into the Cardinals’ bullpen in right-center and let out a scream as he rounded the base that haunted him last fall.

"An awesome feeling," he said.

Wong’s first career postseason homer made a winner of John Lackey. The veteran starter pitched seven innings and struck out eight. He did for the Cardinals what he did against them last October.

The right-handed Lackey, acquired from Boston at the trade deadline, improved to 7-5 in postseason play, including three wins for the Red Sox last year — one against St. Louis in the World Series.

"I think there’s definitely different energy, different adrenaline level. And that can take you to special places when you use it the right way," Lackey said. "The atmosphere tonight was great. Fans were unbelievable. You feel that. You feed off that. If you channel it the right way, it can definitely help you out."

The Dodgers got the tying run on base in the ninth before Trevor Rosenthal got consecutive fly outs to right field to end the game.

The Cardinals entered the postseason with the fewest home runs in the National League and a ballpark that hitters say plays bigger as it gets colder. Through the first two games of the NLDS, the Cardinals scored 12 runs, and seven of them came on homers. In the postseason, nine of the first 12 games have had the deciding run score on a home run. And the Cardinals, despite their chronic lack of pop during the regular season, have gotten in the swing.

Carpenter put the Cardinals ahead with a home run, just as he started Game 1’s rally against Kershaw with a homer and just as he tied Game 2 with a homer. And Wong made sure that for a third consecutive game in this series the game would turn with a ball going over the wall. All three of the Cardinals’ homers that have won or tied the games have come against the Dodgers’ shaky middle relief.