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 Right fielder Jason Heyward and second baseman Kolten Wong each
drove in a pair of runs, sparking the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-1
rout of the Dodgers on Thursday night before a crowd of 45,058 at
Dodger Stadium.
Wacha limited the Dodgers to a run and scattered seven hits with
five strikeouts and no walks in seven innings. Wacha avenged
Saturday's 5-1 loss, his only setback this season, when he no-hit
the Dodgers for five innings before they touched him up for four
runs.
"I wasn't trying to change too much," said Wacha, who improved to
8-1 and is tied for the major league lead in wins. He has won six of
those on the road in seven starts and compiled a 1.58 ERA. "Maybe, a
couple of batters, maybe trying a couple of different (things). The
second-time mentality going in there was just attacking the
hitters."
The only run Wacha surrendered Thursday was a sacrifice fly by left
fielder Alex Guerrero. Wacha said his fastball and cutter were more
effective this time.
"I felt like I got those pitches established on both sides of the
plate," Wacha said
Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal agreed, saying Wacha didn't show
them anything different that when he faced them five days ago.
"He's got talent," said Grandal, who went 0-for-4 with two
strikeouts. "The guy's throwing 96 (mph). He's developed a cutter
and got a pretty good curveball. The guy's good. And, obviously he's
showing it. But he wasn't really doing anything different. I felt
like we were missing pitches. We couldn't get anything going."
Added Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, "You could tell (Wacha) had a
good game plan. He had a real nice fastball working today, but I
thought his cutter was maybe working as good as we've seen it. He
used a few curveballs, change-up was there. He just had the whole
package."
Carlos Frias allowed five runs (three earned) on 10 hits with three
strikeouts and three walks (one intentionally) in 6 2/3 innings for
the Dodgers. Frias (4-3) gave up a run on five hits in Saturday's
win over the Cardinals.
"He probably showed a lot of heart hanging in there. He could have
let that thing get away," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "He
continued to battle."
Wong, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, lined a two-run double in the
eighth to cap the scoring for St. Louis (36-18), which has the best
record in the majors. The Cardinals won their third straight and
defeated Los Angeles (31-23) for the third time in four meetings
this season.
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Cardinals shortstop Jhonny Peralta went 3-for-4 with an RBI. First
baseman Mark Reynolds and left fielder Matt Holliday also drove in a
run apiece.
Los Angeles center fielder Joc Pederson, who went 1-for-4 with a
double, had his streak of home runs in five consecutive games end.
Peralta's RBI single with two outs in the first brought home third
baseman Matt Carpenter, who reached on an error by Dodgers third
baseman Justin Turner, for a 1-0 lead. Reynolds followed with a
run-scoring hit to right, driving in Holliday to make it 2-0.
In the fifth, Holliday's sacrifice fly to right scored Wong for a
3-0 advantage. A two-run single to right by Heyward off Frias put
the Cardinals up 5-0.
"I just think it helps, seeing a guy on back-to-back starts,"
Heyward said. "He's got really good stuff, but we just took what he
gave us, didn't try to do too much."
Matheny was pleased with his club's offensive production.
"We saw some good swings, saw guys working counts deep, being able
to drive the ball," Matheny said. "We had some big hits, some
two-strike, two-out hits, as well. Nice timely hits, like Jason
getting that two RBIs. Those are the ones that hurt."
NOTES: High blood pressure prevented Los Angeles RHP Kenley Jansen
from working Wednesday in the Dodgers' loss to the Colorado Rockies,
who rallied from a two-run deficit against the Los Angeles bullpen
for a 7-6 win. Jansen, though, was cleared medically and available
for the opener of the four-game series against the Cardinals. ...
Dodgers 2B Howie Kendrick didn't play because of a sore knee. He was
injured sliding into third during Wednesday's loss to the Rockies.
Enrique Hernandez started in his place. ... Cardinals RHP Carlos
Martinez (5-2, 3.13 ERA) will face Dodgers LHP Brett Anderson (2-3,
3.42) on Friday.
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