ST. LOUIS — Kevin Kiermaier and Miguel Rojas have made very good livings based on their skills with the glove.
You couldn’t tell that Friday night.
The two defensive specialists combined for four hits and drove in five runs – including three on Kiermaier’s tie-breaking home run in the sixth inning – as the Dodgers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-6, in the opener of their weekend series.
The Dodgers made the unexpected offense stand up on a night when the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres both lost – something that hadn’t happened since July 28. The Dodgers’ lead in the National League West is back to three games over both.
“Huge win … much needed,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, a sentiment no doubt made more intense by a pregame spent moving yet another starting pitcher (this time Tyler Glasnow) to the injured list.
With their starting rotation once again in disrepair, the Dodgers called up left-hander Justin Wrobleski to start Friday.
Wrobleski gave up four home runs in 20 innings over his previous four major-league starts. That trend picked up steam against the Cardinals. He gave up three in five innings – a two-run homer to Paul Goldschmidt (the 35th of his career against the Dodgers) in the second inning and solo home runs to Masyn Winn in the third and Pedro Pages in the fourth. Pages’ drive covered an estimated 462 feet, the third-longest hit at Busch Stadium in the Statcast era (since 2015).
That left the Dodgers trailing 4-2 in the sixth inning.
Mookie Betts led off with a home run and later added a double. With two outs in the inning, Gavin Lux added a single to his solo home run in the second and Will Smith followed with an infield single. Rojas’ second hit of the game drove Lux in with the tying run and Kiermaier followed with his first home run as a Dodger to give them a 7-4 lead.
“I’ve said they brought me over here for my defense more than anything. But anything I can do offensively is a bonus,” Kiermaier said. “I know I can be dangerous in there. We’ve got a lot of really talented players on this team. I’m just laying down there in the weeds in the 7, 8, 9 hole. The other team probably doesn’t think a whole lot about me. That’s okay. I try to do damage any time I can.”
He has done some lately with five hits in his past 11 at-bats and six RBIs in his past five games. Considering the lack of production throughout the season from the bottom third of their lineup, the Dodgers will certainly take it.
“Just trying to make the proper adjustments to put myself in a good position. We’ve tinkered a lot but we’re starting to get it all together,” Kiermaier said of swing changes the Dodgers’ hitting coaches have suggested.
“It’s been a frustrating year but I always say if I can get locked in now moving forward that’s all I care about. I don’t care about my struggles early in the season. I want to give the Dodgers my best. Definitely some swing changes, changing the angle of my bat to try to let my bat stay in the zone a little longer and give yourself that much more chance for success. We’re hammering away there.”
The lead began shrinking almost immediately.
Michael Grove replaced Wrobleski and walked two of the three batters he faced to start the sixth. Both came around to score on RBI singles by Brendan Donovan and Pedro Pages off lefty reliever Anthony Banda.
Evan Phillips and Joe Kelly each put the tying run on base but successfully walked the one-run tightrope in the seventh and eighth innings, setting up Michael Kopech for his first save with the Dodgers.
Like Kiermaier, Kopech was acquired from a team going nowhere at the trade deadline and has been invigorated by the move. He has faced 27 hitters as a Dodger and struck out 13 while allowing just one hit.
Pitching on back-to-back days for the first time in over a month, he hit 102.6 mph with a fastball to the first batter he faced in the ninth on Friday.
“I didn’t know about that until I got in here,” Kopech said of his fastest pitch in the big leagues – and his fastest since “maybe when I was 20. It’s been a while.”
It’s been awhile since the Dodgers had a designated closer, Phillips having slipped in and out of that role. Kopech is making a case to be the closer down the stretch and into the postseason.
“You know, we’ll see,” Roberts said. “I don’t want to anoint him yet, but he is certainly making a strong case for that. I also feel that we have some other guys that can finish games and there’s other times the eighth inning is the top of the order, that matters too.
“We’ll see how it goes, but Kopech is throwing the heck out of the baseball.”
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