MILWAUKEE • When Cardinals starter Edwin Jackson first faced the Brewers in August for his new team, the outing left a sizeable impression on his ERA and on his teammates but not, apparently, on him.

"What start?" Jackson joked Sunday.

In his second game after coming to the Cardinals via trade, Jackson allowed 10 runs and a career-high four homers in seven innings at Miller Park.

It was the definition of a forgettable outing, but it had a lasting influence for the Cardinals. Jackson's bruising that day bought a break for a worn-out bullpen and set up the pitching for a four-game sweep of the Florida Marlins, one of the first series that revealed the emerging bullpen and rotation that would propel the Cardinals through September.

A lot went wrong for Jackson in that start.

But more has gone right for him and the Cardinals ever since.

"After you see a guy beat around and he didn't let it bug him and then he showed up the next outing (for a win), that's when you learn the kind of pitcher we got," catcher Gerald Laird said. "That's what you look for. He doesn't lack confidence. He forgot about that game quickly, and he was ready to go."

Jackson returns to Miller to start Game 2 of the National League championship series tonight. Since that August drubbing, Jackson went 4-1 with a 3.14 ERA in his final 10 regular-season starts, seven of which came as the Cardinals made their last-gasp dash into the postseason. The Cardinals are 8-3 in his last 11 starts, including a win in Game 4 of the NL division series that sent that best-of-five back to Philadelphia for the Cardinals' clincher.

Jackson arrived from the Chicago White Sox via Toronto on July 27, and he was the instant-impact addition of a seven-player deal that sent Colby Rasmus north. The Cardinals tossed him immediately into the division race. Two of his first three starts for the Cardinals and three of his first seven were against the Brewers. He took the bruising on Aug. 3, which included three homers by Casey McGehee. And since, he's allowed three earned runs in two starts and 13 innings against Milwaukee. In his return to Miller Park later in August, Jackson held the Brewers to one run on six hits in seven innings.

"I'm a competitor," Jackson said. "I mean, I can take my beatings and I can handle that. It's not my first one, and it probably won't be my last. I feel good and I feel strong. I continue to challenge hitters."

Manager Tony La Russa said: "I think just about every starter on every club takes his lump one time during the first five months of the season, and that was his time. It was very identifiable why he was taking his lumps. He was in the middle of the plate, he didn't have good command, and they're a good-hitting club."

Correcting those first two elements has Jackson on his current trend and capable of limiting the latter.

When the hard-throwing righty arrived in late July, the Cardinals notified him of some habits he had on the mound that were revealing his pitches. Pitching coach Dave Duncan also started working with Jackson on his mechanics. Jackson described himself as a "rhythm guy" and explained Saturday that he finds a delivery that feels "in synch" and rides it through the game.

Finding the "rhythm" that gives him the reins on his fastball and vicious slider could explain why Jackson has been vulnerable in the first inning. The righty had a 6.39 ERA in the first inning this season, and opponents hit .318 against him before he got the third out. That contrasts with his 1.74 ERA in the second inning, and his 3.32 ERA in innings four through six this past summer. In his Game 4 start against the Phillies, Jackson was tagged for two extra-base hits on his first four pitches and trailed 2-0 before he got an out.

After that inning, he didn't allow another batter to reach third base.

"He gave up two runs and then gave up nothing," said Laird, a former teammate of Jackson's in Detroit. "Once he settles in and gets command of those secondary pitches, he's pretty in control. He's got that fastball, the slider and the other pitches that he can throw for strikes. It makes him a tough at-bat."

Jackson is gathering momentum before hitting the free-agent market. Including the playoff start last week, the first playoff start of his career, eight of Jackson's past nine starts have been quality starts of at least six innings and no more than three earned runs.

By starting the season with the White Sox and ending it with the Cardinals, the 28-year-old nomad — he's played for six teams in nine seasons — has been tutored by two of the best pitching coaches in the game. The Sox's Don Cooper is a mechanic whose staffs crank out quality starts. Duncan encourages pitchers to aggressively seek meek contact from hitters.

Jackson said the blend of those coaches is "trust what you have" and "don't do more than what you need to do to get outs." It's the consistency that both pitching coaches preach that Jackson has embraced.

It's why he wasn't fazed by shouldering the Brewers' barrage Aug. 3. It's why a game like that is forgettable and the heightened stage of a game like tonight's is manageable.

"It's just the method you do to go out and be relaxed and not get overwhelmed (by) what's going on around you," Jackson said. "If you're playing away from home, you have that against you, and you have to do whatever you can do to blank everything out and feel as relaxed as possible."