Friday’s Game Report: Dodgers 7, Cardinals 6
By Rob Rains
The much-maligned Cardinals offense produced six runs on Friday night – and it still wasn’t enough for a victory.
That’s because another area on the Cardinals has been almost as bad as the offense lately – the pitching staff, and it was their performance that sent them to their fifth consecutive loss in the opener of a three-game series against the Dodgers at Busch Stadium.
The Dodgers wiped out a 4-2 Cardinals lead with a five-run sixth inning, the big blow a three-run home run by Kevin Kiermaier off reliever Andrew Kittredge.
Kittredge took over for starter Miles Mikolas with the Cardinals leading 4-3 but allowed an RBI single to the first batter he faced that tied the game, then the home run to Kiermaier.
Two of those runs were charged to starter Miles Mikolas, handing him the loss.
The five runs off Mikolas increased his ERA in three August starts to 9.22. Only one Cardinal starter has an ERA under 5.00 in 14 combined games in August – 4.74 by Sonny Gray.
The Cardinals held Shohei Ohtani hitless in five at-bats. The Cardinals are the only MLB team he has never homered against, now in 32 career at-bats.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to two games under .500 for the season, to 4-10 in August and to a season-low 10 games behind the division-leading Brewers.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: The Cardinals only had six hits but three of them were home runs – a two-run homer by Paul Goldschmidt in the third and solo shots by Masyn Winn in the third and Pedro Pages in the fifth that gave them the 4-2 lead … Pages’ homer was measured at 462 feet, the longest this season at Busch Stadium … Pages also singled in a run in the sixth, when Brendan Donovan also had an RBI single … The Cardinals drew six walks in the game, and three of them came around to score.
On the mound: Mikolas has won only one of his last 10 starts … He gave up two of the Dodgers’ three homers, to Gavin Lux leading off the second and to Mookie Betts leading off the sixth, which snapped a string of 11 consecutive outs … A pair of two-out singles knocked Mikolas out of the game before Kittredge allowed the single, homer and another single to the only three hitters he faced …Matthew Liberatore, Ryan Fernandez and JoJo Romero blanked the Dodgers over the final 3 1/3 innings to keep it one-run game.
Key stat: In their 14 games in August the Cardinals have allowed 24 home runs, the most in the NL, while compiling a 5.57 team ERA.
Worth noting: Steven Matz worked 4 1/3 scoreless innings for Memphis on Friday night, throwing 76 pitches. He allowed three hits, walked one and struck out six … In the second game of Memphis’ doubleheader at Jacksonville Luken Baker hit his 32nd home run of the season … Lance Lynn threw a bullpen before Friday night’s game and how he recovers will determine the next step in his return from the injured list … The ERA’s for the other three Cardinals starters in August are 5.23 for Andre Pallante, 5.63 for Erick Fedde and 6.11 for Kyle Gibson.
Looking ahead: The Cardinals will turn to Pallante to try to snap the losing streak on Saturday night in the second game of the series.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
Oliver Marmol
