The St. Louis Cardinals didn’t provide much to get excited about for the first 8 innings. Dustin May gave the Cardinals a serviceable start, but his former team touched him up for 3 runs before his day was done. The Cardinals had early innings opportunities, but had nothing to show for it on the scoreboard until late and, even then, not enough to sweep the Dodgers as LA prevailed 4-1.
The Los Angeles Dodgers struck first when Kyle Tucker doubled in the top of the 2nd inning followed by a walk to Max
Muncy and a double from Andy Pages giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead. Kim then singled scoring Muncy making it 2-0 Los Angeles. Kim would irritate the Cardinals further when he reached on an infield single in the top of the 5th inning. He advanced to second on an infield groundout by Shohei Ohtani and then scored on a Freddie Freeman single giving the Dodgers a 3-0 lead. That was a historic RBI with a Cardinals connection as Freddie passed Johnny Mize for 94th on the all-time RBI list.
The Los Angeles Dodgers got an excellent start from Justin Wrobleski who held the Cardinals scoreless allowing only 6 hits through the first 6 innings. Dustin May wasn’t great, but wasn’t awful either. He kept the Cardinals within striking distance allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits through 6 innings. He did receive his World Series ring from the Dodgers this weekend which was nice…for him.
Justin Bruihl was the first representative to make an appearance from the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen entering the game in the top of the 7th inning. He walked the first batter he saw. Two batters later, he plunked Shohei Ohtani where the sun don’t shine bringing up Freddie Freeman with two runners on base, but he struck him out and escaped the inning with no harm done.
Jared Shuster pitched the 8th inning for the Cardinals and got Kyle Tucker out on a deep fly to right field. Max Muncy reached on an infield ball hit between JJ Wetherholt and Masyn Winn, but Shuster got Rushing to hit into a double-play to end the inning.
The Cardinals had their chances. Both Winn and Church bottom of the 2nd inning, but Church was thrown out trying to steal second base to end that potential rally. Similar story in the bottom of the 3rd inning when JJ Wetherholt reached on an error and Ivan Herrera walked, but Jordan Walker grounded out to shortstop so no soup for you. In yet another instance of Deja vu, the Cardinals would see Fermin and Church single in the bottom of the 4th inning, but Pedro Pagés lined out to left stranding even more runners.
The cardiac Cardinals would not go quietly as the offense waited until the bottom of the 8th inning to score. With 2 outs, Jordan Walker lived up to his name and walked. He would score on a single by Alec Burleson which was misplayed in the outfield giving the Cardinals hope cutting into the Dodgers lead 3-1.
That moment of optimism would be muted in the top of the 9th inning when Jared Shuster would give up an unearned run when Andy Pages reached on an error by Masyn Winn. Pages stole second on a ball that Pages threw into center field and then advanced to third on a ground out by Rojas. He would score on a pinch-hit single by Andy Call. Remarkably, Shohei Ohtani remained hitless for the entire series in St. Louis. The Dodgers weren’t done in the 9th as Freddie Freeman doubled on a ball that hit the foul line in left field and bounced into the stands. After an ABS challenge, Freeman was granted his well-earned double. With runners at second and third, the Cardinals intentionally walked Hernandez to load the bases, but Tucker would line out to center leaving St. Louis within a grand slam at 5-1 Dodgers.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals would get no grand slam in the bottom of the 9th inning. Fermin struck out, Church lined out and Pagés struck out. All things considered, we just have to realize that we took 2 out of 3 from the defending World Champions.
The St. Louis Cardinals get no rest as they’ll welcome the Milwaukee Brewers to town for a very important early season National League Central showdown. Kyle Leahy will start for the Cardinals while Chad Patrick will be send to the mound for the dastardly Brewers. First pitch scheduled for 6:45pm Monday night in Busch Stadium and televised play-by-play available through Cardinals.tv.
