Jeff Birney
Dodgers Hang On After Early Lead Trimmed in Late Innings
The Dodgers beat the Cards Thursday evening in St. Louis, despite allowing the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth after leading 8-1 in the top of the fourth.
Hometown hero David Freese led things off in the top of the first, receiving a standing ovation at Busch Stadium and promptly tripling to bring two runs across. The Dodgers scored again on a Matt Kemp single to get an early 3-0 lead.
The Cardinals answered back with a run in the bottom of the first, but the Dodgers dominated for most of the early innings, going up 8-1 by the fourth.
The Cards began chipping away at the Dodgers lead in the fifth though, as Tyson Ross went long on Clayton Kershaw to bring the score to 8-2. The Cards scored two more runs in the innings.
Manny Machado homered in the seventh while St. Louis answered back again in the bottom half, coming within four. The game went scoreless in the eight and top of the ninth, with Kenley Jansen coming in to try and finish things off.
With Jansen’s spray pattern all over the board, he immediately walked the first batter and allowed Jose Martinez to single, which put the tying run in the on-deck circle with two on and no outs.
Jansen tried to settle in, and got Marcell Ozuna to fly out but promptly walked Paul Dejong. Jedd Gyorko grounded into what should have been a game ending double-play, but a bad throw from Machado allowed two runs across the plate, bringing the Cards within two.
Matt Adams hit a sharp grounder along the first base line to Bellinger to end the game. The Dodgers won, 9-7.
L.A. held steady against first-place Colorado and gained ground in the Wild Card race with the victory.
The Dodgers face the Cardinals again today, game time is 5:15 pm, PST.
