It was all downhill right from the get-go, as the first three Dodgers reached in succession and rode home on a grand slam off the bat of Adrian Gonzalez. The Dodgers were one out away from a series-opening victory when closer Kenley Jansen gave up a tying home run to Jedd Gyorko.
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Matt Holliday collected an RBI double and Tommy Pham cracked a two-run homer for St. Louis (52-46), which managed to make a game of it as its bullpen pieced together 7 2/3 scoreless innings.
BLUE JAYS 2, MARINERS 0: At Toronto, J.A. Happ and three relievers combined on a one-hitter, Edwin Encarnacion hit a solo home run and Toronto avoided a three-game sweep.
Mayers will be the first pitcher outside of the regular five-man starting rotation to make a start for the Cardinals this year, and he’ll make his big-league debut on the national stage that accompanies ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. Over 3,2 innings, the veteran pitcher has a 2.45 ERA with the Cardinals. In fact, it was more offensive than just a poor production, really, but, like, one of those sequels were they were unable to produce one of the original actors playing a major character and the whole thing went straight to DVD.
“He’s been throwing well”, St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said of Mayers. “That being said, I’m nearly on the same recovery schedule”. The defense behind him in Game Two was much improved compared to Dodgers first game. He has not allowed a run in 41 of 42 appearances this season. After those first two hits, I felt like I had to be better. Aledmys Diaz had his string of four straight two-hit performances come to a halt, but the 25-year-old Cuban did record a single Saturday to run his hitting streak to five contests.
Gonzalez on the night had three hits, and since his two days of not starting in Pittsburgh on June 26-27 is hitting.349/.433/.542 with 18 RBI in 22 games. “Every kid that’s picked up a baseball, that’s their dream to be in that kind of situation and I thought he had pretty good composure overall”, Mayers said. Los Angeles pitcher Scott Kazmir slapped a two-run single up the middle for a 6-0 lead.
After going just 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position in Friday’s 16-inning loss, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was happy with the offensive production.
BALTIMORE – Mark Trumbo hit his major league-leading 30th home run, Kevin Gausman pitched seven shutout innings and the Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians 5-2 on Saturday night in a duel between first-place teams. “I felt like I told myself that over and over but as far as when you get out there it’s a totally different ballgame”.
In the seventh, Los Angeles failed to score despite four walks. Gonzalez’s fifth career grand slam (and 299th career home run) gave him homers in consecutive games for the first time this season and matched his total for his 47 games before Saturday.
The temperature at the start of the game was 96 degrees. Los Angeles fell to 3-4 on its nine-game road trip despite another tremendous night at the plate by rookie Corey Seager. He has allowed four runs on 11 hits. Without those two blown saves in less than a week, the Dodgers would be just two games behind the Giants. On May 14, Kazmir came within an out of a complete game, settling for a 5-3 decision at Dodger Stadium.
Cardinals: INF Matt Carpenter is expected to begin a minor league rehab assignment this week.
The Cardinals closed the gap, but lost 9-6.
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After earning only one win in his first 16 starts, Gausman (2-7) struck out seven and allowed only one runner past first base.
