Seeing Red: Dodgers Once Again Lose to St. Louis

The Dodgers were never really in the game on Thursday night. The home opener was quite the lopsided matchup between Carlos Frias and Michael Wacha. Frias was roughed up by the tough hitting St. Louis lineup while Michael Wacha tamed the bats of the Dodgers and didn’t allow any heroic homeruns to the Major League leading homerun hitting team on the night.

Dodgers 1 8 1

Cardinals 7 12 0

WP- Wacha (8-1)

LP- Frias (4-3)

While the Dodgers were surely happy to be home after the rain soaked high altitude series in Colorado, the Cardinals prove to be a formidable competitor whether at home at Busch Stadium or on the road. The Dodgers left 7 men on base, and they went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.

Carlos Frias began the game with a very shaky first inning after allowing two singles and a walk to the Cardinals. The inning was extended after Mike Matheny challenged a play at first which was overturned. Matt Holliday just beat out the throw breaking up the double play. Frias escaped without any damage done thanks to a pickoff of Kolten Wong and a Mark Reynolds strikeout.

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It looked like it was going to be another daunting night against Michael Wacha after he retired the Dodgers in order in the home half of the first.

“There is no June gloom, not at this hour of the day.”- Vin Scully

The Cardinals took advantage of a bumbling two-out error at third base by Justin Turner in the third. The fielding mistake was followed by three consecutive singles by Matt Holliday, Jhonny Peralta and Mark Reynolds to give the Red Birds a 2-0 lead. Have I mentioned that I miss Juan Uribe?

Joc Pederson hit a booming two-out double in the bottom of the third, but the Dodgers couldn’t muster anything else against Wacha in the inning.

St. Louis notched another three runs in the fifth. A leadoff walk to Wong followed by a Matt Carpenter double and a Holliday sacrifice fly gave the Cardinals their first run. Then an intentional walk to Peralta segued into a Mar Reynolds groundout which gave the Cards runners at second and third with two outs. Jason Heyward‘s two-run single was the nail in the coffin and gave St. Louis a big 5-0 lead.

The Dodgers soured a perfect scoring opportunity in the bottom of the fifth and left runners at second and third. Jimmy Rollins and Kiké Hernandez both singled, and Carlos Frias laid down a successful sacrifice bunt to move the runners over. Up came Joc Pederson, who was looking for his sixth homerun in six consecutive games in order to break a Dodger franchise record. It was not to be this time, because the rookie was called out on strikes looking at a Wacha cutter.

Jun 4, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson (31) throws his bat after striking out in the fifth leaving two runners on base against the St. Louis Cardinalsat Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers finally scored a run in the bottom of the sixth off Wacha. Vin Scully described the three consecutive singles as “wrong field hits” by Adrian Gonzalez, Justin Turner and Andre Ethier. Alex Guerrero unfortunately didn’t come up with a grand slam this time, but his sacrifice fly at least put the Dodgers on the board.

After Frias allowed another two hit to the Cardinals in the seventh, there was a DonnieSwitch™ made with two outs. Alberto Callaspo came in to play third base, Hernandez moved from shortstop to second base, Justin Turner moves to second and lefty Daniel Coulombe took over for Frias on the mound. Coulombe did his job by striking out Jason Heyward, and the Cards stranded their runners at second and third.

Carlos Frias pitched 6 2/3 innings and allowed 5 runs on 10 hits with 3 strikeouts and 3 walks on 107 pitches.

It got even uglier in the eighth inning when the Cardinals scored yet another two runs. Daniel Coulombe served up back-to-back doubles to Randal Grichuk and Kolten Wong both hit to the poorly fielding Alex Guerrero.

Michael Wacha pitched 7 innings and allowed 1 run on 7 hits with 5 strikeouts and no walks on 107 pitches.

Kevin Siegrist and Carlos Villanueva pitched two scoreless innings for the Cardinals in relief to seal the deal for the Cardinals.

The Bad News: The Dodgers drop to 31-23 on the season, and the idled Giants pick up a 1/2 game in the standings.

The Good News: With Yasiel Puig and Hector Olivera readying to join the Dodgers soon, perhaps we have yet to see the full potential of this Dodger lineup.

On Friday, Brett Anderson will go up against Carlos Martinez in Game 2.