The Los Angeles Dodgers endured another relatively quiet night at the plate and fell to the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-2. It extended their season-worst losing streak to three games and guaranteed the Dodgers a losing series for the first time in four opportunities this year.
The Dodgers forced Jack Flaherty to labor but only had Joc Pederson’s solo home run in the sixth inning to show for it. Justin Turner worked Flaherty for 14 pitches in the first inning, only to ground into a double play.
Flaherty scattered three hits and struck out eight over six innings. Wednesday marked the first time in three starts this season the young right-hander went more than five innings.
Flaherty, a Southern California native who grew up rooting for the Dodgers, has now held his hometown team to three runs and collected 26 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched over three starts.
As the Dodgers were struggling to generate run support, Kenta Maeda managed to keep the game close before allowing the Cardinals to pull away late. Though, it was Maeda’s mental mistake that allowed St. Louis to take an early lead.
After leading off the bottom of the second with a double, Marcell Ozuna got a terrific jump and stole third base. Yadier Molina immediately cashed him in with an RBI groundout. Dexter Fowler’s two-out RBI single in the fourth inning extended the Cardinals’ lead to 2-0.
Just as quickly as Pederson cut the Dodgers’ deficit in half, he gave a run right back to the Cardinals by selling out for a diving catch attempt in left field. The ball bounced by Pederson, resulting in an RBI triple for Paul DeJong. Molina later added a two-run homer to put the Cardinals ahead 5-2.
Pederson’s risk and Molina’s blast wound up proving costly as they essentially negated Max Muncy’s solo home run in the seventh inning. That being said, Ozuna’s two-run homer off JT Chargois in the eighth inning broke the game open.
