Cardinals bested by Dodgers in LA finale, 3-4
It’s been a tough week for St. Louis Cardinal pitchers. On Monday, the staff was knocked around heavily, and in result, lost badly. On Tuesday, starter Chris Carpenter turned in a brilliant performance, but he and the Cardinals lost anyway due to a lack of run support.
This time, however, there was a new problem. Or perhaps, there was a little of both the previous problems. Cardinals’ starter Adam Wainwright didn’t have his normal sharpness, but neither did the St. Louis lineup that failed once again to provide sufficient support on Wednesday.
Wainwright, in his unlucky 13th start of the year, was touched for a season-high-tying 4 runs by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He stayed on the hill for only 6 innings, a somewhat short visit compared to his norm. Only 66 of his 113 pitches were strikes, leading to 5 walks, the most he has issued since April of ‘09.
Adversarially, Clayton Kershaw started for the Dodgers. The young, talented lefty has all but once got the best of the Cardinal lineup in his young career, and Wednesday was no different. In fact, he struck out a season high of 10 hitters, including Matt Holliday twice and Skip Schumaker thrice. Total, he threw 7 innings on only 3 runs, winning his 6th game of the year.
The few runs St. Louis scored all came very quickly in the 4th inning. Aaron Miles started things with a leadoff single, followed by a Matt Holliday walk. Ryan Ludwick then put the Cardinals on the board, blasting a three-run homerun, his third long ball in as many days.
But besides that deep shot past left field, the Cardinals didn’t provide much in the way of offense. They produced 6 hits, including the two in the 4th, and two that came in the 9th in the Cardinals’ final attempt to come back. Albert Pujols singled and Yadier Molina ground-ruled a double, but it was to no avail, and St. Louis lost 3-4.
Wainwright was given the loss, his 4th of the season. The result was the the third of its kind in a row for the Cardinals, who were effectively swept by LA. In addition, St. Louis was dropped down in the standing in the NL Central, where they now sit in second behind the Cincinnati Reds.
St. Louis will have a brief time to rest and hopefully recovery from what was a painful series with an off day on Thursday, when they travel to Phoenix, Arizona. There, they will face the Diamondbacks beginning at 8:40 CT on Friday.
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