St. Louis 7, LA Dodgers 1
When: 10:10 PM ET, Thursday, June 4, 2015
Where: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California
Temperature:
66°
Umpires:
Home -
Dale Scott, 1B -
Dan Iassogna, 2B -
CB Bucknor, 3B -
Lance Barrett
Attendance:
45058
By The Sports Xchange
LOS ANGELES -- Michael Wacha didn't change much in his approach. The results, though, were entirely different from the last time he faced the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Right fielder Jason Heyward and second baseman Kolten Wong each drove in a pair of runs, sparking the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-1 rout of the Dodgers on Thursday night before a crowd of 45,058 at Dodger Stadium.
Wacha limited the Dodgers to a run and scattered seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks in seven innings. Wacha avenged Saturday's 5-1 loss, his only setback this season, when he no-hit the Dodgers for five innings before they touched him up for four runs.
"I wasn't trying to change too much," said Wacha, who improved to 8-1 and is tied for the major league lead in wins. He has won six of those on the road in seven starts and compiled a 1.58 ERA. "Maybe, a couple of batters, maybe trying a couple of different (things). The second-time mentality going in there was just attacking the hitters."
The only run Wacha surrendered Thursday was a sacrifice fly by left fielder Alex Guerrero. Wacha said his fastball and cutter were more effective this time.
"I felt like I got those pitches established on both sides of the plate," Wacha said
Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal agreed, saying Wacha didn't show them anything different that when he faced them five days ago.
"He's got talent," said Grandal, who went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. "The guy's throwing 96 (mph). He's developed a cutter and got a pretty good curveball. The guy's good. And, obviously he's showing it. But he wasn't really doing anything different. I felt like we were missing pitches. We couldn't get anything going."
Added Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, "You could tell (Wacha) had a good game plan. He had a real nice fastball working today, but I thought his cutter was maybe working as good as we've seen it. He used a few curveballs, change-up was there. He just had the whole package."
Carlos Frias allowed five runs (three earned) on 10 hits with three strikeouts and three walks (one intentionally) in 6 2/3 innings for the Dodgers. Frias (4-3) gave up a run on five hits in Saturday's win over the Cardinals.
"He probably showed a lot of heart hanging in there. He could have let that thing get away," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He continued to battle."
Wong, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, lined a two-run double in the eighth to cap the scoring for St. Louis (36-18), which has the best record in the majors. The Cardinals won their third straight and defeated Los Angeles (31-23) for the third time in four meetings this season.
Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta went 3-for-4 with an RBI. First baseman Mark Reynolds and left fielder Matt Holliday also drove in a run apiece.
Los Angeles center fielder Joc Pederson, who went 1-for-4 with a double, had his streak of home runs in five consecutive games end.
Peralta's RBI single with two outs in the first brought home third baseman Matt Carpenter, who reached on an error by Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, for a 1-0 lead. Reynolds followed with a run-scoring hit to right, driving in Holliday to make it 2-0.
In the fifth, Holliday's sacrifice fly to right scored Wong for a 3-0 advantage. A two-run single to right by Heyward off Frias put the Cardinals up 5-0.
"I just think it helps, seeing a guy on back-to-back starts," Heyward said. "He's got really good stuff, but we just took what he gave us, didn't try to do too much."
Matheny was pleased with his club's offensive production.
"We saw some good swings, saw guys working counts deep, being able to drive the ball," Matheny said. "We had some big hits, some two-strike, two-out hits, as well. Nice timely hits, like Jason getting that two RBIs. Those are the ones that hurt."
NOTES: High blood pressure prevente
Top Game Performances
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Hits |
HR |
TB |
Avg |
LOB |
K |
RBI |
BB |
SB |
Errors |
| St. Louis
|
12 |
0 |
15 |
.333 |
17 |
7 |
7 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| LA Dodgers
|
9 |
0 |
11 |
.265 |
11 |
7 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
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