Steve Webb
CHAVEZ RAVINE, CA — Let’s be honest. The Dodgers have been pretty poor on this home stand. They’ve won three games, but they haven’t been scoring and the defense has been shoddy. However, on Saturday night the team finally put it together and played Dodger baseball again. They got three early homers from Will Smith, Trayce Thompson, and Miguel Vargas to get a lead, and Clayton Kershaw turned in another stellar performance, going six strong innings in the Dodgers’ 6-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Dodgers’ power surge gives them an early lead
After being skunked on national TV on Friday night, the Dodgers were eager to turn the page on that stinker as quickly as possible. Luckily, Will Smith was more than happy to oblige. Batting third with no Freddie Freeman in the lineup (he was under the weather a bit), Smith stepped in against Card starter Jordan Montgomery with two outs in the bottom of the first. Montgomery threw a perfect sinker for strike one. But Smith attacked Montgomery’s next offering, a curve ball on the outside edge of the plate. The ball sailed through the warm LA air and landed among the paying customers in the left centerfield pavilion. Three hitters in, the Dodgers did more damage than they had done in nine innings on Friday.
Trayce’s solo shot, Vargas’s big moment
In the bottom of the 2nd, the bottom of the Dodgers’ batting order came up big to pad the lead for Clayton Kershaw. After Chris Taylor had a deep out to USC’s Lars Nootbaar in right field, Trayce Thompson came to the plate. And for the 12th time this season, Trayce went deep. Very deep. On a full count, Trayce belted a 439-foot home run to left center to double the Dodgers’ lead.
After Austin Barnes celebrated his bobblehead night with a single, rookie Miguel Vargas stepped into the batter’s box. Vargas was a late add to the lineup at first base after Freddie Freeman decided to take a night off (I know, weird, right?). But he made the most out of the opportunity. One a 1-1 pitch from Montgomery, Miggy lifted and separated and found the home run seats in left center. It was the first big-league dong for Vargas, and it gave the Dodgers a comfortable 4-0 lead.
Dodgers add on in the 4th
More good signs in the Dodgers’ half of the fourth inning. With Trayce Thompson on first, Cody Bellinger turned around a high heater and drilled it into the the left centerfield gap for a double. Thompson got on his horse and was able to score all the way from first to make it 5-0 Dodgers. Later in the game, Cody would go oppo again with a single. It was a very good night at the dish for Belli.
Bellinger’s double turned over the lineup for Mookie Betts. And Betts came through with a solid RBI single. It was good to see from Betts, who has been scuffling a little bit, hitting under .200 in his last 15 games. Getting him to heat up before October will be a very good thing indeed.
Kershaw delivers a solid six, marred by late homer
Clayton Kershaw continued his Sweet September in this one, going six strong innings before being lifted in favor of the bullpen. If not for a late homer from Nolan Arrenado, it would have been a scoreless outing. Still, it was a fantastic outing from Kershaw. He absolutely had all his stuff working all night long, hitting all his spots with pinpoint control.
Kersh went 25 of 26 first pitch strikes, and was constantly pitching from an advantage all night long. The Cards got hits here and there (seven total), but with men on base, he went into lockdown mode. Until the Arrenado home run, the Cardinals were hitless with runners on base. Clayton probably had another inning in him, but Dave Roberts decided that Kersh had done enough for the cause. His final line for a very good night: 6.0 IP, 7 H 2 ER, 1 BB 7 K. The legend’s ERA went up a tick, but it is still a knockout 2.42 on the year.
Chris Martin, Evan Phillips, and Tommy Kahnle finished things up for the Dodgers. With the series now knotted at a game apiece, the Dodgers move into Sunday with a chance to win a seventh straight series in September.
Grove gets another shot in finale
The series with the Cardinals wraps up on Sunday afternoon. Manager Dave Roberts has elected to give Tyler Anderson (and the rest of the rotation) a little more rest, so the series finale will feature yet another appearance from sometime starter Michael Grove. This will be the fifth start (sixth appearance overall) for the young righty out of West Virginia. Though he got knocked around a bit on September 20 against the D-backs, he pitched better than the line for the night appeared. And, he kept the team in the game enough to facilitate its big comeback in the bottom of the 8th in that game.
He’ll lock horns with veteran righty Adam Wainwright, is still a powerful weapon at the age of 41. Waino hasn’t posted the great numbers that he had in 2021, but that devastating curve will be sure to keep Dodger hitters guessing all afternoon. Game time: 1:10 pm PDT.
Cans of Corn…
- Kershaw’s first pitch ratio was the second highest in the last 20 years, trailing only the Orioles John Means on the night of his no-hitter. Means landed 26 of 27 strikes on that magical night.
- Will Smith started the night with a homer and a triple, but his production ended there. He finished 2-for-4.
- Yency Almonte had another perfect inning down in OKC on Friday. 1-2-3 with a strikeout.
- Tony G. is headed to join Yency in OKC. That had better go well or the Dodgers will possibly be without a righthander in the postseason rotation.
- 105 wins. Ten games to go. The win record of 107 seems assured, but if the Dodgers go 6-4 over these last games, they will also have the record for best regular-season winning percentage in Dodger history. Seems doable.
