Miguel Vargas and Mookie Betts power Dodgers to victory over Cardinals
The Dodgers found a kindred spirit in the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night, a fellow defending division champion that has underachieved and underwhelmed as much as they have for the first month of the season.
The struggling 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.
Miguel Vargas made only 27 starts at second base in five minor league seasons. So it seemed risky for the Dodgers to entrust the spot to him this season.
The key for May, who gave up two earned runs and five hits in five innings, striking out four and walking four, was throwing fewer of his lively 96-mph sinkers and more of his 87-mph curveballs after the first two innings.
“When he’s right, he can get that sinker going a little bit more north-south, but today, early, it was running off the plate against those left- handers, and you saw the walks,” manager Dave Roberts said. “But he did a nice job of getting back in the strike zone … and I applaud Austin [Barnes, Dodgers catcher] for continuing to challenge him with that curveball.
“He started getting it into the strike zone, getting some swing and miss with it, slowing those guys down and getting them off the hard stuff. I think he got better as the night went on.”
Betts opened the bottom of the first with his 38th career leadoff home run, which ranks 10th on baseball’s all-time list, a towering shot just inside the left-field foul pole, and Vargas capped the team’s scoring with a two-out, two-run homer to left — his first of the season — for a 7-2 lead in the seventh.
The heart of a Dodgers lineup that ranks second in baseball in homers but has struggled to produce runs consistently, got a significant boost with Friday’s return of No. 3 hitter Will Smith from a concussion and cleanup man Max Muncy from the paternity list.
Muncy, who entered Friday with a major league-leading 11 homers and 1.129 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, walked in a two-run first and drove an RBI double to right-center field in a two-run third.
St. Louis took a 2-0 lead in the first, Lars Nootbaar scoring on a wild pitch and Willson Contreras hitting a sacrifice fly.
After Betts’ leadoff homer in the bottom of the first, Freddie Freeman singled, Muncy walked, and Jason Heyward rolled an RBI single to right to make it 2-2.
May walked two batters to open the third but escaped the jam with the help of Heyward, who made a nice diving catch of Nolan Arenado’s slicing drive toward the line in right field.
“I always feel like if I can get there, I’ll get there,” said Heyward, the 33-year-old veteran who has won five Gold Glove Awards. “Over time you kind of do a pretty good job of gauging [when to dive]. Where I was positioned, I saw myself taking a deep angle and I thought, ‘No, you’re gonna have to readjust and get in closer.’ The ball hung up long enough, and I was fortunate enough to make the play.”
Freeman led off the bottom of the third with a single and scored from first on Muncy’s double to make it 3-2.
Heyward followed with a squibber inside the third-base bag that went for an RBI double and a 4-2 lead.
Roberts said Heyward “has swung the bat as well as anybody, if not better, as far as quality of contact,” this season and doesn’t have much to show for it. The exit velocity on Heyward’s RBI double: 57.4 mph.
“I wasn’t trying to hit it anywhere — it just went that way and got by [St. Louis third baseman Nolan] Arenado somehow,” Heyward said. “That’s what it takes, sometimes.”
The Dodgers got two breaks to tack on in the fifth, the first when a catcher’s interference call nullified Heyward’s fly out to right and allowed the Dodgers to load the bases with one out. Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty then hit James Outman, who struck out in his six previous at-bats, with an 0-and-2 curve to force in a run to make it 5-2.
Heyward said he could feel his bat hit the glove of Contreras, but the ball still sent Nootbar to the wall in right for the catch.
“You very rarely see a ball go 100 mph off the bat and it be catcher’s interference, so it speaks to how strong he is,” Roberts said. “He squared it up pretty good, and fortunately we caught a break right there.”
Short hops
To clear roster spots for Muncy, Brusdar Graterol and Smith, the team optioned infielder Luke Williams and left-hander Justin Bruihl to triple A and placed designated hitter J.D. Martinez on the 10-day injured list because of lower-back tightness.
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