Big seventh inning propels Dodgers to 12-6 win over Cardinals

By MATT PIKE

The St. Louis Cardinals kept things close with the Los Angeles Dodgers, until a five run seventh inning helped propel the Dodgers to a big 12-6 win over the Redbirds late Wednesday night on the west coast at Dodger Stadium. 

The Dodgers took the lead in the first inning behind a sacrifice fly by Freddie Freeman, driving in Shohei Ohtani, and a solo home run by Max Muncy.  But in the second inning, the Cardinals came back to tie up the game thanks to a two run home run by Nolan Gorman, Gorman’s 10th home run of the season scoring Willson Contreras after he reached on a fielding error to open the inning.

Los Angeles took the lead back quickly however, scoring three more runs in the third inning.  Two runs came on Muncy’s second home run of the game, scoring Mookie Betts, and the Dodgers went back to back as Teoscar Hernández followed that with a solo shot of his own, his 17th of the season, giving the Dodgers a 5-2 lead. 

The Cardinals cut back into the lead in the top half of the seventh inning, an RBI single by Iván Herrera driving in Gorman after his leadoff single to the inning, but the bottom half saw the Dodgers pull away putting up the five run inning.  With two runners on, after walks to Ohtani and Betts, a single by Muncy scored Ohtani for the first run.  Hernández extended the lead with his second home run of the game, bringing home Betts and Muncy, with a three run blast before Alex Freeland drove in the final run of the inning with an RBI single, bringing home Andy Pages who hit a two out double.

Contreras hit a solo home run in the eighth inning for the Cardinals, but again in the bottom half of the inning Los Angeles added the final two runs on a sacrifice fly by Freeman, scoring Ohtani, and an RBI single from Michael Conforto driving in Betts.  With the bases loaded in the ninth inning, St. Louis scored their final two runs, Yohel Pozo scoring on a wild pitch and Thomas Saggese being driven in by an Alec Burleson sacrifice fly. 

Miles Mikolas took the loss for the Cardinals, falling to 6-9 on the year, pitching three innings and giving up five runs on seven hits while striking out one and walking one.  At the plate, Gorman and Contreras were each 2-for-4 with a home run, Gorman driving in two runs and Contreras driving in one.  Herrera was 1-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. 

St. Louis and Los Angeles wrap up their series on Wednesday as the Redbirds end their west coast road trip.  Matthew Liberatore (6-9, 3.96 ERA) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Shohei Ohtani (0-0. 2.40 ERA) for the Dodgers.  First pitch is at 3:10pm, coverage will begin around 3 on KY 102 (102.5 FM). 

You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.