The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 12-6, powered by two home runs from Max Muncy and two from Teoscar Hernández, to set up the series rubber match on Wednesday.
L.A. jumped out to an early lead against Miles Mikolas, who was previously critical of the Dodgers’ payroll, and chased him from the game early.
Shohei Ohtani started them off with a double and scored on a sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman to put the Dodgers up 1-0. Muncy then followed with his first homer of the night to double the lead in the first inning.
Muncy’s second homer was a two-run shot that came in the third inning, which broke a 2-2 tie at the time. Hernández followed Muncy’s homer with a solo blast of his own that put the Dodgers up 5-2.
It was just the second time this season the Dodgers have hit back-to-back home runs with the previous coming on May 19 with Ohtani and Betts.
Muncy’s homer drove in Mookie Betts, who reached on a double to start the third and snapped an 0-for-22 stretch at the plate. He also singled in his next at-bat and singled in the eighth inning, giving him his first three-hit game since June 7.
The Dodgers rallied in the seventh to break things open, starting with back-to-back walks from Ohtani and Betts. Muncy then singled home another run to make it a 6-3 game.
Hernández then slugged his second homer of the game, this time a three-run blast, to put the Dodgers up 9-3. The Dodgers added another run when Alex Freeland singled after Andy Pages doubled.
Ohtani and Betts singled to start off the bottom of the eighth, and they scored another run when Freeman hit a sac fly. Muncy followed with a single, and Michael Conforto drove in the 12th run of the game with another single.
Emmet Sheehan sharp in Dodgers’ win
Emmet Sheehan was on the mound and turned in five solid innings. He allowed two runs, but none were earned, on five hits, while also striking out five and walking one.
Both runs scored on a two-out homer from Nolan Gorman in the second inning, but the runs were unearned because Willson Contreras originally reached base on a fielding error from Muncy.
Outside of that, the Cardinals only threatened one other time against Sheehan, which was in the fourth inning when Contreras and Lars Nootbaar had a pair of one-out singles.
The Cardinals added another run later against Ben Casparius in the seventh inning after he allowed singles to Gorman, Pozo and Iván Herrera. Casparius left with two runners on, but Alex Vesia got them out of the jam on one pitch.
Herrera also homered off Alexis Díaz in the eighth inning to give the Cardinals their fourth run. Díaz was also credited for allowing another two runs in the ninth after walking a batter and hitting one.
Anthony Banda entered and both inherited runners scored, one on a passed ball and one on a sacrifice fly that gave the Cardinals six runs.
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