Starting on seven days’ rest, Rich Hill issued a career-worst seven walks and failed to make it out of the fifth inning. Conversely, Mike Leake went eight strong innings in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 6-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Hill was squeezed a tight strike zone, which led to some verbal sparring with home-plate umpire Rob Drake. Though the 37-year-old hardly had his best command.
Hill’s night did begin on a positive note, though it was aided by Chris Taylor. In his first career start in center field, Taylor was immediately tested by a Dexter Fowler drive to the wall. Taylor very much looked the part as he tracked down the deep fly ball.
Matters began to spiral out of control for Hill in the second inning as he walked the bases loaded with one out. A few pitches after a mound visit by Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, Hill surrendered a two-run single to Kolten Wong.
Hill then walked Leake to load the bases a second time in the inning, but managed to escape without any further damage. Hill walked off the mound shouting expletives in frustration over the rocky frame. He needed 36 pitches to get through the second, after throwing only five in the first inning.
Leake worked around a Cody Bellinger leadoff single in the bottom of the second to preserve the Cardinals’ 2-0 lead. St. Louis threatened again in the third, behind a Matt Carpenter leadoff walk and Jedd Gyorko base hit.
After a flyout, Carpenter advanced to third base on a pitch that kicked away from Yasmani Grandal, but Gyorko was caught in a rundown. Aledmys Diaz worked a two-out walk, only for Hill to get out of the inning by striking out Randal Grichuk.
A 1-2-3 fourth inning was offset by a rocky fifth. Stephen Piscotty led off with a walk, Carpenter reached on a bunt single, and Gyorko pulled a base hit into left field. Bellinger overran the ball, allowing two runs to score.
That marked the end of the night for Hill. He threw 82 pitches (42 balls) over four-plus innings, and was charged for a fifth run on Yadier Molina’s sacrifice fly.
Molina drove in his second run and extended his hitting streak to 13 games by hitting a hanging slider from Sergio Romo for a solo home run in the seventh inning. The homer was Romo’s third allowed in his past four appearances.
While the Cardinals were adding to their lead, Leake continued to keep the Dodgers in check. He faced the minimum through four innings, with Bellinger’s single in the second erased on a double play.
Adrian Gonzalez was stranded in the fifth after hitting a one-out double. The Dodgers’ next baserunner didn’t come until the seventh inning, when Corey Seager doubled on the first pitch he saw. Grandal’s groundout advanced Seager, and he scored on Bellinger’s sacrifice fly.
Taylor led off the eighth with a double but nothing came of it. Tyler Lyons completed a scoreless ninth inning to finish out the Cardinals’ victory.
