It was hot in Los Angeles and the pressure was on
The Los Angeles Dodgers were poised to dominate the St. Louis Cardinals at home, on a hot 93 day in Southern California, but things don’t always go to plan. Clayton Kershaw and his L.A. squad were doing great through 6 innings, giving up only one run during the span when the score was 6-1, but it was a disaster in the 7th.
After almost taking him out from the mound, Don Mattingly decided to keep Kershaw on the field and the top of the 7th inning spawned an 8-run display by the Cardinals, thanks to hit after hit from St. Louis. After M. Adams and John Jay drive one run each with the bases loaded, Matt Carpenter double to deep right in his next at-bat, which brought three runs in and cleared the bases. That quickly put the Cards up 7-6 and the crowd in L.A. was beyond stunned.
The nail in the coffin came when Kershaw was finally pulled and Pedro Baez came in for relief of the star pitcher. In the first at-bat against Matt Holliday, he gave up a 3-run jack to left field, putting St. Louis up 10-6 in a convincing fashion.
The Dodgers weren’t giving up even when momentum wasn’t on their side, though.
Adrian Gonzalez homered to right in the 8th inning, bringing Yasiel Puig in and cutting the lead down to two. In the 9th, Dee Gordon brought one run in after a ground out, and the Dodgers were inching their way back into the game, only down 10-9.
With Puig on the mound and Trevor Rosenthal pitching straight at him with the tying run on third, Yasiel struck out on the 100 mph fastball, one of two he swung on and missed in his last at-bat.
This win gives the Cardinals home field advantage in the series, stealing one on the road and putting the Dodgers with their backs against the wall heading into Game 2. This was supposed to be a pitching duel between both teams, but ended up as a hitting clinic, with 26 hits combined by both teams and 19 runs between the two.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles left 11 runners on base, compared to St. Louis’ one and it’s probably one of the reasons they lost the game.
Game 2 will be tomorrow at 9:37 EST.