Tuesday’s matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals marked the second time in the past five days Kenta Maeda and Michael Wacha faced off against one another. Just like last week at Dodger Stadium, the Cardinals held a 3-0 lead after the first inning.
And once again, Wacha and the Cardinals failed to protect their early lead. Heading into his start against the Dodgers last week, Wacha had completed at least six innings in all seven outings this season.
He only pitched four innings and was worse off the second time around, going just three innings. Wacha exited with a 4-3 deficit, and in some sense that was a positive development.
Chase Utley led off the second inning with a triple, only to be stranded. Adrian Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly in the third got the Dodgers on the board, and Utley’s ground-rule RBI double pulled them within a run of the Cardinals.
Utley then alertly scored on Paul DeJong’s throwing error after he fielded a Kiké Hernandez RBI infield single. Two walks with the bases loaded and Logan Forsythe’s fielder’s choice extended the Dodgers’ lead to 7-3 in the fifth inning.
Los Angeles tacked on two runs in the ninth and finished with a 9-4 victory. Utley led the offense with three hits, finishing a home run shy of the cycle. Utley was hit by a pitch, which he said postgame is something he welcomes.
Forsythe went 2-for-3 with one run scored, one RBI and also drew three walks. Chris Taylor was a third Dodgers player to produce a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and one walk.
