MILWAUKEE — Thanks to Albert Pujols’ monster night, the St. Louis Cardinals have done exactly what they set out to do in the NL championship series: Erase the Milwaukee Brewers’ home-field advantage.

After a 12-3 victory over the Brewers in Monday night’s Game 2, the Cardinals are headed home tied in the series with ace Chris Carpenter taking the mound in Game 3. Things are looking a lot brighter than they did after blowing a big lead in the first game of the series.

“If you want to make it a competitive series, winning a game here, that’s a big step in the right direction,” Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

Carpenter faces Brewers ace Yovani Gallardo on Wednesday night.

Sweep three games at home and the Cardinals move on to the World Series — but in a matchup of two intense NL Central rivals who have played each other evenly all season, nobody’s counting on that.

“It’s a pretty evenly matched series,” Cardinals slugger Lance Berkman said. “I would imagine that this thing is a long way from being over.”

It was a temporary setback for the Brewers, who remain confident despite some cracks developing in their starting pitching beyond Gallardo and Zack Greinke.

“Sometimes, you’re going to get spanked a little bit,” center fielder Nyjer Morgan said.

Pujols certainly spanked the Brewers’ pitching in Game 2 — over and over and over. The three-time MVP went 4 for 5 with a home run, three doubles and five RBIs.

His big hits came one night after Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder bashed the Brewers to a 9-6, come-from-behind victory in Game 1. This time, the big bats couldn’t bring Milwaukee back — even at Miller Park. Milwaukee was the best home team in the majors all season and the Brewers had won all four home games in the playoffs until Monday.

“It wasn’t joyful,” Fielder said. “You’ve just got to deal with it and move on.”

Until Monday, Pujols hadn’t been producing runs in this year’s playoffs.

He was 1 for 4 in Sunday night’s loss, hitting into a double play with runners on first and third in the seventh inning. A run scored on the play, but it seemed to be an indication that Pujols wasn’t quite on his game. He came into Monday with only one RBI in the Cardinals’ first six postseason games.

“You learn from the mistakes that you made,” Pujols said. “Yesterday was just so tough. Going to bed, I was just thinking about some of the opportunities I had to help our ballclub win. I turned that page, knowing today was a new day.”