A sellout crowd of 52,304 saw the Dodgers get outhit 10-7 and go one for 15 with runners in scoring position, but they drew eight walks, stole three bases and put the ball in play with runners on third and fewer than two outs.
“Get ‘em over, get ‘em in — that was nice,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “You can’t always win games by hitting home runs. [Saturday night] it was Clayton [Kershaw] being as good as he was. Then today, we scored runs in a different way. The last 10 days, we’ve been playing better baseball.”
The Dodgers hovered around .500 for most of April, their uneven offense, shaky bullpen, injuries and players missing time on the paternity list preventing them from gaining steam. But they’ve won seven of 10 games to close April with a 16-13 record.
“We’ll take momentum wherever we can get it,” Freeman said. “The way we’ve been playing, just kind of treading water the first few weeks, it’s nice to put it all together at the end of April and go into May. … I feel like we’re playing better baseball together instead of one facet good, one facet not.”
There was some good and not so good on the mound Sunday. Noah Syndergaard notched his first win as a Dodger, but his 5⅓-inning, three-run, eight-hit, no-walk, no-strikeout start was underwhelming. It marked the first time in 150 career starts over eight years that the burly right-hander threw five innings or more without a whiff.
The 91.2-mph average velocity of Syndergaard’s sinking fastball was down from its season average of 92 mph. He threw 46 of 73 pitches for strikes but induced only three swinging strikes. Seven batted balls by the Cardinals had exit velocities of 100 mph or more.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
“You know, outs are not all created equal,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I think he would like some more swing and miss … but he did a good job of using his curveball, sequencing more. Overall, he did a really nice job.”
The bullpen combined for 3⅔ scoreless innings, with struggling left-hander Alex Vesia, who entered with a 9.35 ERA in 11 games, striking out two of three batters in the seventh and Yency Almonte, who entered with a 9.28 ERA in 12 games, throwing a one-two-three eighth with a strikeout.
“The telling thing for me is to see Alex and Yency have good ones today,” Roberts said. “When you look at the last few weeks, we’ve had three guys (Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol, Caleb Ferguson] pretty much stand out, and we can add Shelby [Miller] to that list. But to get Yency and Alex on track would be very beneficial.”
The Cardinals scored twice in the second inning on Dylan Carlson’s sacrifice fly and Brendan Donovan’s RBI single. The Dodgers trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second when Jason Heyward doubled, took third on James Outman’s grounder to second and scored on Miguel Vargas’ grounder to short.
Heyward and Outman walked to open the fourth and advanced on Vargas’ hard grounder to first. David Peralta grounded out to second to score Heyward, and Chris Taylor stroked an RBI double to left for a 3-2 lead.
That advantage disappeared quickly in the fifth when Tommy Edman doubled and scored on Lars Nootbar’s single for a 3-3 tie, but the Dodgers countered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth for a 5-3 lead.
Will Smith led off with a bloop double to shallow right. Muncy and Heyward walked to load the bases. Outman struck out, but Cardinals reliever Drew VerHagen threw a wild pitch over Vargas’ head, Smith scoring for a 4-3 lead. Vargas walked, and Peralta followed with a fielder’s-choice grounder to second to score Muncy for a 5-3 lead.
Smith followed walks to Mookie Betts and Freeman with a sacrifice fly in the eighth for a 6-3 lead.
“It was a clinic in team offense,” Roberts said. “To score four runs on outs is pretty impressive.”
Gavin Stone set to make debut
The Dodgers plan to call up top pitching prospect Gavin Stone to make his big league debut Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies, according to a person with knowledge of the situation unauthorized to speak publicly.
Stone, a 24-year-old right-hander with a mid-90s fastball and highly touted changeup, is 2-2 with a 4.74 ERA in six starts for triple-A Oklahoma City, striking out 27 and walking 12 in 24⅔ innings.
Roberts wouldn’t comment on Stone’s expected promotion, but when asked Sunday if there would be adjustments to the rotation, he said, “Possibly.” He added that any moves would be to give starters extra rest this week, not to replace an injured pitcher.
Dustin May is in line to start Wednesday, but he threw a career-high 104 pitches in five innings Friday night. Inserting Stone in the rotation would allow May, Kershaw and Syndergaard to pitch in San Diego this weekend.
Times staff writer Jack Harris contributed to this story.