ST. LOUIS — The Dodgers had no trouble putting runners on base Friday night at Busch Stadium. The problem was getting them home. Despite out-hitting the Cardinals 10-7, Los Angeles came away empty-handed in a frustrating 5–0 shutout loss. The defeat dropped the Dodgers to 38–26 on the season and highlighted the importance of what had been a strength for a team with championship aspirations: timely hitting.
In a game that started over an hour late because of rain, clutch hitting didn’t make it off the flight from LA. The Dodgers finished 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine runners on base. They put multiple men on in four of the first six innings but failed to cash in every time.
The most painful missed opportunity came in the third. With Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts aboard and nobody out (run expectancy 1.437), Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández struck out back-to-back against starter Sonny Gray. Max Muncy then flied out to end the threat. Then, there was a carbon copy of that same inning in the eighth. This time with Betts on third and Freeman on second and NOBODY OUT (run expectancy 1.964), reliever Phil Maton got two strikeouts and a soft grounder to get the Cards back to the bat rack unscathed. Those sequence captured the night in a nutshell.
Gray continued his strong season for St. Louis, tossing 6.1 scoreless innings and scattering eight hits. The veteran right-hander improved to 7–1 with a 3.35 ERA, effectively mixing his cutter and curveball to neutralize several rallies.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, wasted another strong night from Mookie Betts, who went 3-for-4 with a double and two singles. He now has seven hits in his last three games and has raised his average to .268. His swing looks increasingly locked in—a welcome sign after a sluggish May.
Andy Pages also turned in a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 and continuing to provide a spark in the lower half of the lineup. But the rest of the offense couldn’t come through when it mattered most. And in a cruel twist of fate, Pages delivered the only hit with RISP–and it couldn’t even score a run since it didn’t leave the infield. Ugh.
Michael Conforto, fresh off his hero’s moment, extended the second inning with a single, but then struck out swinging in the ninth as part of a tough night for the bottom third of the order. Max Muncy, Dalton Rushing, and Miguel Rojas combined to go 0-for-10 with five strikeouts. Not what you want.
The missed chances wasted a decent outing by rookie left-hander Justin Wrobleski, who allowed four runs across six innings but kept the game close until the later innings. Two of those runs came on a second-inning homer by Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés, who added a walk and two runs scored. Brendan Donovan delivered the dagger with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth.
Willson Contreras put the game fully out of reach with a solo homer off Chris Stratton in the eighth, capping the scoring.
The Cardinals, now 35–28, didn’t need many chances—just one big swing and a little clutch hitting. They went 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position but made their hits count.
The Dodgers will look to bounce back Saturday with Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the mound. They’ll need better production in the clutch if they want to even the series—and avoid another night of stranded runners and wasted momentum.
At the very least, Betts appears to be heating up. If the rest of the lineup can follow suit, the Dodgers’ offense should rebound. But for now, this loss stings—not just for the final score, but for how avoidable it felt.
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