Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers bounced back from dropping the season series against the Giants by starting off their road series against the Cardinals with an emphatic 5-1 victory.
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Things did not go very well for Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas. He began the game by hanging an 0-2 breaking ball to Trea Turner, who rapped it for a double, then gave up a single to Max Muncy that was hit hard enough that even Trea couldn’t score, and then Mookie Betts lined a ball down the line in left that bounced off the wall in foul ground to limit him to a single but plated a run. Fortunately for Mikolas, Justin Turner then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to clear the bases, but another run scored to make it 2-0 early.
Unfortunately for Mikolas that didn’t end the rally, with Corey Seager drawing a walk, and Chris Taylor immediately following by bombing his 20th homer of the season to left for a 4-0 lead.
CT3 woke up like this. pic.twitter.com/Bssubht1Qw
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 6, 2021
The 3rd saw a fortunate rally for the Dodgers, with Betts drawing a walk, advancing to second on an ill-advised backpick, and then scoring on a Seager ground-ball single to make it 5-0.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the offense stalled out after that.
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No matter, as Max Scherzer was absolutely dominant. After a double started the game against him, he struck out the next three to end the threat, part of a stretch of retiring nine in a row. He gave up a single to start the 4th, then retired seven more in a row.
That run was broken up by back-to-back one-out singles which cornered the runners, and he looked on the verge of getting out of it after a strikeout, but an Austin Barnes passed ball led to a run a 5-1 lead.
Scherzer has been better than advertised: 8 IP, 6 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BB, 13 K, 103 Pitches.
Joe Kelly closed the game out in the 9th without any fuss and the beat marched on.
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The Dodgers improve to 87-51 on the year.
