Friday’s match report: Dodgers 7, Cardinals 6
By Rob Rains
The Cardinals’ much-maligned offense scored six runs on Friday night – but it still wasn’t enough for a win.
That’s because the Cardinals have been struggling in another area of play lately – their pitchers. And it was their performance that led to their fifth straight loss in the opener of a three-game series against the Dodgers at Busch Stadium.
The Dodgers erased a 4-2 Cardinals lead with a five-run, sixth inning, the deciding blow being a three-run home run by Kevin Kiermaier off reliever Andrew Kittredge.
Kittredge took over for starter Miles Mikolas when the Cardinals were leading 4-3, but allowed an RBI single by the first batter to tie the game and then a home run by Kiermaier.
Two of those runs were credited to starter Miles Mikolas, which earned him the loss.
Mikolas’ five runs raised his ERA to 9.22 in three starts in August. Only one Cardinal starter has an ERA below 5.00 in 14 combined games in August – Sonny Gray’s 4.74.
The Cardinals held Shohei Ohtani hitless in five at-bats. The Cardinals are the only MLB team against which he has never hit a home run in 32 career at-bats.
The loss dropped the Cardinals’ record to two games under .500 this season, to 4-10 in August and to a season low of 10 games behind the league-leading Brewers.
This is how the game went on Friday evening:
On the plate: The Cardinals had only six hits, but three of them were home runs — a two-run homer by Paul Goldschmidt in the third inning and solo hits by Masyn Winn in the third and Pedro Pages in the fifth that gave them a 4-2 lead… Pages’ home run was measured at 462 feet, the longest this season at Busch Stadium… Pages also scored a run on a single in the sixth inning when Brendan Donovan also had an RBI single… The Cardinals managed six walks in the game, and three of them resulted in scores.
On the hill: Mikolas has won just one of his last 10 starts…He allowed two of the Dodgers’ three home runs, one to Gavin Lux in the first inning and one to Mookie Betts in the first, ending a streak of 11 consecutive outs…A pair of two-out singles knocked Mikolas out of the game before Kittredge allowed a single, a home run and another single to the only three batters he faced…Matthew Liberatore, Ryan Fernandez and JoJo Romero held the Dodgers scoreless over the final 3 1/3 innings, leaving the game within one run.
Important statistics: In their 14 games in August, the Cardinals allowed 24 home runs, the most in the NL, and posted a team ERA of 5.57.
Noteworthy: Steven Matz pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings for Memphis on Friday night, throwing 76 pitches. He allowed three hits, one walk and struck out six times … In the second game of Memphis’ doubleheader at Jacksonville, Luken Baker pitched his 32and Home run of the season … Lance Lynn threw a bullpen before Friday night’s game, and his recovery will dictate the next step in his return from the injured list … The ERAs of the other three Cardinals starters in August are 5.23 for Andre Pallante, 5.63 for Erick Fedde and 6.11 for Kyle Gibson.
Outlook: The Cardinals will turn to Pallante to try to end the losing streak in the second game of the series on Saturday night.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
Oliver Marmol
