LA Dodgers blow out the St Louis Cardinals and pull to within one game of first place- June 2014
The red hot LA Dodgers jumped on St Louis starting pitcher Lance Lynn early to run away to a 9-1 win vs. the Cards. They pulled within 1 game of the first place Giants gaining 8 games since June 8th. Zach Greinke moved to 10-4 with a strong effort going 7 innings while giving up one run and striking out ten. LA scored one in the first and then six in the second inning while chasing Lynn out of the game. Lynn had pitched very well of late but had a blister and also tried to help the team as they were shorthanded with 2 of their pitchers going on the DL recently.
For the Dodgers, the offense was led by Dee Gordon (3 hits including 2 doubles) and Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Andre Either and AJ Ellis each with 2 hits. The team had 15 hits during the blowout and the game was never in doubt. There is a big push to vote for Gordon to be on the all star team for the July 15ht game. The only 2 highlights for St. Louis was a long solo HR in the 3rd inning by Matt Carpenter and 4 scoreless mop up innings by relief pitcher Nick Greenwood. Cardinals Manager Matt Matheny has kept his team in position for another playoff berth as they are in second place behind Milwaukee despite many injuries and losing a couple key players from last year’s team.
The Dodgers lost Justin Turner to DL as he injured his leg running out a double but Hanley Ramirez came back after missing 4 games, which will only help. The team has been playing great of late with their pitching, offense and defense coming together. The Cardinals played terrible early in the game defensively (especially shortstop Daniel Descalso besides not being able to handle Greinke. Manager Don Mattingly has been upbeat and has his team playing great during the summer dog months to get back near the lead of the division. LA’s pitching has been incredible of late including Kershaw, who has been dominating and Greinke (perhaps baseball’s best 1-2 punch). Next up is one final game vs. St. Louis before 3 home games vs. Cleveland and then they hit the road. Another big crowd of over 50,000 were in attendance on the rare late afternoon game televised by Fox.
More at www.dodgers.com