Friday’s Game Report: Cardinals 5, Dodgers 0
By Rob Rains
Waiting out a long rain delay was worth it for the Cardinals on Friday night.
Following the 1 hour, 17 minute delay, Sonny Gray pitched into the seventh inning, Pedro Pages and Willson Contreras homered and Brendan Donovan had a two-run single in the win over the Dodgers in the first game of the weekend series at Busch Stadium.
Gray scattered eight hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out five over his 6 1/3 innings. It way]s Gray’s third scoreless outing in his last four starts and he has allowed a total of three runs over his last 25 1/3 innings.
Since Gray’s previous start, seven shutout innings against Texas, the other Cardinals starters had allowed a combined 19 runs in 20 1/3 innings against the Rangers and Royals.
The Cardinals have won each of Gray’s last six starts and are 11-2 in his 13 starts this season.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: Pages hit a two-run homer in the second inning, his fifth of the season … Pages drew a leadoff walk in the fifth and after Lars Nootbaar also walked, both scored on Donovan’s single to increase the lead to 4-0 … Contreras added an insurance run with his seventh homer of the year in the eighth, giving him at least one RBI in each of his last six games … Nolan Arenado had three of the Cardinals’ seven hits.
On the mound: Gray stranded seven runners on base, including four in scoring position … JoJo Romero got Shohei Ohtani to ground into an inning-ending double play in the seventh but then gave up a single to Mookie Betts and a double to Freddie Freeman to open the eighth. Phil Maton relieved and got back-to-back strikeouts and a groundout to get out of the jam … Steven Matz worked a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts … It’s the first time the Cardinals have shut out the Dodgers when LA had 10 or more hits since July 17, 1990.
Key stat: The Dodgers were just 1-of-13 with a runner in scoring position and left nine runners on base.
Worth noting: The Cardinals signed free agent righthander Zach Plesac and assigned him to Memphis. The 30-year-old Plesac has spent most of his career with the Cleveland Guardians. He had been pitching in the independent Atlantic League to begin this season … Quinn Mathews allowed only one unearned run over 5 innings on Friday night for Memphis. He did not walk a batter and struck out six … With Chris Stratton signing with the Dodgers, former Cardinal Ryan Loutos was designated for assignment. The Cardinals had traded Loutos, a graduate of Washington University, after they DFA’d him earlier this season. He had appeared in two games for Los Angeles.
Up next: Erick Fedde will get the start in the middle game of the series on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:15 p.m.
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