Miguel Vargas and Mookie Betts power reinforced Dodgers to win over Cardinals
The Dodgers found a kindred spirit in the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night, a fellow defending division champion that has underachieved and underwhelmed for the first month of the season.
The visitors served as something of a healing balm for the Dodgers, who overcame a rocky start from Dustin May with an early homer from Mookie Betts and a late two-run shot from Miguel Vargas for a 7-3 victory before a crowd of 48,138 in Chavez Ravine.
May walked two and gave up two runs in a 26-pitch first and needed a career-high 104 pitches to complete five innings, but the Cardinals (10-17) couldn’t put another dent in May or the bullpen until the ninth, when they scored once off left-hander Alex Vesia.
Dodgers defeat St. Louis Cardinals 7-3
⚾ Dodgers 7, Cardinals 3 — FINAL
Top of the ninth: Alex Vesia took the mound and allowed a leadoff walk to Paul DeJong before striking out Tommy Edman. Dylan Carlson then singled to left before Lars Nootbar hit a run-scoring single to center to drive in DeJong.
Paul Goldschmidt popped out to shallow right before Vesia struck out Nolan Gorman to end the game.
The Dodgers and Cardinals continue their three-game series Saturday at 6:10 p.m. PDT.
Dodgers hold five-run lead heading into the ninth inning
⚾ Dodgers 7, Cardinals 2 — Eighth inning
Top of the eighth: Facing Dodgers reliever Shelby Miller, Nolan Arenado flied out to the warning track in left. Willson Contreras then flied out and Alec Burleson grounded out to cap the frame.
Bottom of the eighth: Austin Barnes and Mookie Betts each popped out. Freddie Freeman doubled to the right-field corner for his third hit of the game before Will Smith flied out to right for the third out.
Dodgers extend lead on Miguel Vargas’ two-run home run
⚾ Dodgers 7, Cardinals 2 — End of the seventh
Bottom of the seventh: Miguel Vargas hit a two-run home run to left off Cardinals reliever Chris Stratton to extend the Dodgers’ lead.
Max Muncy flied out to right, pinch hitter Trayce Thompson walked and James Outman struck out before Stratton replaced JoJo Romero on the mound. Thompson scored on Vargas’ first homer of the season.
Top of the seventh: Brendan Donovan singled to right off Dodgers reliever Victor Gonzalez to lead off the inning. Dylan Carlson then hit into 6-4-3 double play. Brusdar Graterol took over for Gonzalez and got Paul Goldschmidt to pop out to third.
Dodgers hold 5-2 lead heading into the seventh inning
⚾ Dodgers 5, Cardinals 2 — End of the sixth
Top of the sixth: Caleb Ferguson retired the Cardinals in order, striking out Paul DeJong along the way.
Bottom of the sixth: Cardinals reliever JoJo Romero walked Austin Barnes, then struck out Mookie Betts. Freddie Freeman grounded out to Romero before Will Smith lined out to center.
Dodgers extend their lead over the Cardinals in the fifth
⚾ Dodgers 5, Cardinals 2 — End of the fifth inning
Bottom of the fifth: After Freddie Freeman flied out, Will Smith singled to left and Max Muncy drew his second walk of the game. Jason Heyward reached base after catcher’s interference was called on Willson Contreras, loading the bases and negating a running catch by Lars Nootbar in right field.
Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty then hit James Outman with a pitch, bringing in Smith to extend the Dodgers’ lead. Flaherty struck out Miguel Vargas and was relieved by JoJo Romero. Chris Taylor struck out to end the inning.
Flaherty’s final line: 4 2/3 innings, seven hits, five earned runs, two walks and seven strikeouts.
Top of the fifth: Dustin May struck out Nootbar before Paul Goldschmidt doubled into the right-field corner. After Nolan Gorman flied out to left, Goldschmidt stole third base but was left there when Nolan Arenado grounded out to Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.
Caleb Ferguson will take over for May in the sixth. May allowed three hits and two earned runs along with four strikeouts and four walks over 104 pitches.
Dodgers lead 4-2 heading into the fifth inning
⚾ Dodgers 4, Cardinals 2 — End of the fourth
Top of the fourth: Alec Burleson lined out to right before Dustin May struck out Paul DeJong. Brendan Donovan singled to right and was left stranded when Dylan Carlson grounded out to first.
Bottom of the fourth: David Peralta grounded out to third before Jack Flaherty got Austin Barnes out on his sixth strikeout of the ninth. Mookie Betts grounded out to short to cap the frame.
Back-to-back doubles push Dodgers into the lead
⚾ Dodgers 4, Cardinals 2 — End of the third
Max Muncy and Jason Heyward each hit a run-scoring doubles off Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty to give the Dodgers their first lead of the game.
Muncy’s first extra-bases hit of the season that wasn’t a home run went to the wall in the right-center gap, scoring Freddie Freeman, who led off with a single. Muncy then scored when Heyward lined a bouncer down the left-field line.
James Outman and Miguel Vargas struck out to cap the third.
In the top of the inning, Lars Nootbar and Paul Goldschmidt led off with back-to-back walks before Dustin May struck out Nolan Gorman. Jason Heyward made a great diving catch in right on a flare hit by Nolan Arenado before Willson Contreras grounded into a force out at second as May gets out of a two-on, no-out jam. May is up to 63 pitches.
The Cardinals have two stolen bases tonight. The Dodgers have given up an MLB-worst 40 stolen bases this season.
Dodgers and Cardinals tied heading into the third inning
⚾ Cardinals 2, Dodgers 2 — End of the second
Dustin May retired the Cardinals in order — Paul DeJong struck out, Brendan Donovan grounded out and Dylan Carlson flied out.
Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty struck out David Peralta and Austin Barnes before Mookie Betts flied out to right.
Mookie Betts homers as Dodgers catch up to Cardinals
⚾ Cardinals 2, Dodgers 2 — End of the first
Mookie Betts homered off Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty and Jason Heyward followed with a run-scoring single to tie the game.
Freddie Freeman followed Betts’ 38th career leadoff homer with a single. Will Smith, playing in his first game off the concussion list, hit into a force out at second before Max Muncy drew a walk. Heyward’s single to right scored Smith from second.
It took Flaherty 28 pitches to get through the inning.
Cardinals take early lead against Dustin May and Dodgers
⚾ Cardinals 2, Dodgers 0 — First inning
Lars Nootbar scored on a wild pitch and Willson Contreras drove in Paul Goldschmidt on a sacrifice fly to give the Cardinals an early lead.
Nootbar drew a leadoff walk from Dodgers starter Dustin May before advancing to third on a double to left by Paul Goldschmidt. After Nootbar scored, May walked Nolan Gorman, prompting a mound visit from Mark Prior.
Nolan Arenado then popped out before Gorman stole second. Contreras followed with a ball hit deep enough to right to plate Goldschmidt from third. Alec Burleson flied out on May’s 26th pitch to end the frame.
During Goldschmidt’s at-bat, a foul ball went off the mask of home plate umpire Nate Tomlinson, popping off his mask and helmet. After a brief moment collecting himself, Tomlinson stayed behind the plate.
‘Trying to be a hero’ doesn’t pay off for J.D. Martinez, who goes on injured list
J.D. Martinez was kicking himself for continuing to play after tweaking his lower back while breaking out of the box on a fourth-inning flyout in last Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Chicago Cubs, a decision that ultimately led to the Dodgers’ designated hitter being placed on the 10-day injured list before Friday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Martinez felt the back tighten up again during a sixth-inning at-bat that ended with his solo homer off Marcus Stroman, and he irritated the back while swinging at a pitch that was down in the zone during an eighth-inning strikeout. The long flight from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles on Thursday night only exacerbated his condition.
Martinez, who sat out the three-game series in Pittsburgh, hit in the cage Friday afternoon, but the Dodgers, in need of a roster spot to activate catcher Will Smith (concussion) off the injured list, did not deem him ready to play for several days, so they placed him on the IL, backdated to Tuesday.
“Honesty, I was just being dumb, trying to be a hero, trying to weather the storm,” said Martinez, who is batting .250 with an .840 OPS, four homers and 15 RBIs in 23 games. “If I had spoken up sooner, it probably would have saved me, but it’s one of those things where I irritated it, and now I have to wait until it calms down.”
Will Smith and Max Muncy back in lineup for the Dodgers
The heart of the Dodgers lineup was activated for Friday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals, with No. 3 hitter Will Smith returning from a concussion that sidelined the catcher since April 13 and cleanup man Max Muncy returning from the paternity list after missing the three-game series in Pittsburgh this week.
Muncy leads the major leagues in on-base-plus-slugging percentage (1.129), slugging percentage (.718) and home runs (11). Smith was the team’s most consistent hitter for the first two weeks of the season, batting .333 (13 for 39) with a 1.058 OPS, three homers and 12 RBIs. He will start at designated hitter Friday night after completing a live batting-practice session.
“We’re not completely whole,” manager Dave Roberts said, alluding to the lower-back injury that has sidelined designated hitter J.D. Martinez (placed on the injured list Friday) and the hamstring injury that has sidelined shortstop Miguel Rojas, “but it does feel good to have the guys that we intended on being in the lineup every day back.”
Reliever Brusdar Graterol was also activated off the paternity list. To clear roster spots for Muncy and Graterol, the team optioned infielder Luke Williams and left-hander Justin Bruihl to triple-A Oklahoma City. The Dodgers will have to make another move to clear a roster spot for Smith before the game.
Rojas (hamstring strain) completed a rigorous workout at Dodger Stadium Friday afternoon, hitting live pitching, fielding grounders and running the bases, and will begin a brief minor league rehabilitation stint Saturday. Roberts expects Rojas to return Monday or Tuesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies.
With Miguel Vargas at second base, Dodgers have ‘an expectation he will get better’
The hesitation in his response when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was recently asked to assess the overall defensive play of rookie second baseman Miguel Vargas spoke volumes.
“I think it’s been … OK,” Roberts said, pausing to find the right description. “Part of having him take on this position this year is we knew there would be some growing pains. But there’s also an expectation he will get better. There are some plays I think we’d like to have back, but the bet is on the person, the player and the athlete.”
Vargas, 23, made only 27 starts at second base in five minor league seasons and was not considered an elite defender at his primary position, third base. So it seemed risky for the Dodgers to entrust the spot to him, especially with a new ban on infield shifts requiring second basemen to cover far more ground than they had in the past decade.
Manny Mota and the Dodgers have been nearly inseparable for 75 years
Manny Mota watched his first Dodgers game from a mango tree.
It was March 1948. The Brooklyn Dodgers were holding spring training in the Dominican Republic after reaching an agreement with dictator Rafael Trujillo for a reported $60,000. Trujillo had a stadium constructed for the occasion in the capital city, which the dictator named Ciudad Trujllo after himself. The name reverted to Santo Domingo after Trujillo was assassinated in 1961.
Mota was a 10-year-old boy infatuated with baseball. He played games wherever he found them around the city. The Dodgers, coincidentally, were his favorite team. Jackie Robinson, coming off his barrier-breaking rookie season, was his favorite player. But he couldn’t afford a ticket to attend a game in his hometown. He couldn’t even afford the five cents charged to watch from atop a truck beyond the right-field wall. His single mother of eight children had other concerns. The boy devised a plan.
Thursday recap: Dodgers fall to Pirates in another series loss
PITTSBURGH — Four weeks later, the Dodgers are right back where they started.
Through 26 games this season, they have as many wins as losses, dropping back to .500 after a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Thursday.
And just like at the beginning of the year, their new-look roster is facing more questions than answers, continuing to sputter with an inconsistent and shorthanded offense, underwhelming and out-of-sync pitching staff, and previously unforeseen problems such as their inability to control the running game.
Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season
Here’s a look at the Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season. All times and broadcast/streaming options are subject to change.
