The St. Louis Cardinals hit five home runs, including two by Thomas Saggese and a two-run shot from Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker, to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-8 on Tuesday night.
Ramón Urías and Joshua Báez also homered for the Cardinals, who had lost seven of their previous nine games while being outscored 63-38. St. Louis’ offense broke out against Los Angeles, producing the team’s highest run total in a game at Dodger Stadium.
Cardinals pull away early
Dodgers starter Eric Lauer (8-7) allowed seven runs in the first three innings, including five in the third. The Cardinals loaded the bases twice during the inning while extending their lead to 7-0.
Iván Herrera drove in a run with a single, Leo Bernal delivered a two-run single in his major league debut, and Saggese added a sacrifice fly. Nathan Church later reached on an infield single to second, scoring Bernal.
St. Louis opened a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Urías and Saggese hit back-to-back home runs with two outs.
Walker’s two-run drive off reliever Seth Halvorsen made it 9-3 in the fourth. Walker had hit just five homers in his previous 41 games since the All-Star break. Saggese homered again with two outs in the fifth, and Báez added a solo shot in the seventh to give the Cardinals an 11-4 advantage.
Dodgers struggle despite four Betts RBIs
Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy went a combined 1 for 7 with three strikeouts for Los Angeles. Mookie Betts drove in four runs, but the Dodgers fell to 28-2 this season when scoring at least eight runs.
Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy (6-9) allowed four runs and five hits with four strikeouts over five innings.
Dodgers utilityman Kiké Hernández struck out as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning before allowing a leadoff hit while pitching the ninth. He became the 148th position player to pitch in the majors this season.
Lauer finished with seven runs allowed on eight hits in three innings.
Up next
The Cardinals will use a bullpen game Wednesday against Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.56 ERA).
Source: www.espn.com
