ST. LOUIS — With much of the Dodgers’ pitching staff spending more time in the trainer’s room than on the field this season, the team has practically launched a shuttle service to ferry arms between triple-A Oklahoma City and the big leagues.
On Friday it deposited left-hander Justin Wrobleski on the mound at Busch Stadium where he failed to give the Dodgers the lift they needed, yielding four runs in six innings of a 5-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.
The lost was the fourth in six games for the struggling Dodgers (38-26), who have dropped 11 of their last 20, scoring just one run combined in their last two defeats.
Wrobleski (1-2), making his second start of the season, gave up six hits, walked three — two of whom scored — and struck out five over six innings. All four runs against him came on two-out hits, the first two on Pedro Pages’ massive two-run homer in the second inning and the last two in the fifth, when Brendan Donovan followed a pair of walks with a single to center.
The game’s final run came on Willson Contreras’ one-out solo homer to left off Chris Stratton.
The Dodgers had little trouble solving Cardinals’ starter Sonny Gray early, collecting five hits in the first three innings. One of hits was Andy Pages’ bloop single to right in the second, which extended his hitting streak to a career-high 11 games.
But he was one of just two Dodgers to make it as far as third base against Gray (7-1), who took a shutout into the seventh before leaving with one out and a runner on first. The bullpen took it from there, with JoJo Romero, Phil Maton and Steven Matz getting the final eight outs.
If injuries have crippled the Dodgers’ pitching, the offense seems to have crumpled of its own accord. After a single by Mookie Betts and a double from Freddie Freeman put two runners in scoring position to start the eighth, Teoscar Hernández and Max Muncy struck out and Andy Pages was retired on a weak grounder to first.
The Dodgers stranded nine runners, were one for 13 with runners in scoring position and struck out nine times. So while the Dodgers still lead the majors in runs and average, six games into June they’re hitting under .220
The start of Friday’s game was delayed 77 minutes by rain, which rolled in just as the Dodgers were finishing batting practice. But with thunderstorms, hail and high winds forecast for the weekend, the Cardinals were under pressure to get the game in.
Weather has already forced the Cardinals to play five doubleheaders, the most they’ve played through the first 62 games of a season since 1964. If Friday’s game had been rained out, the Cardinals would have had to go the players’ association for permission to schedule another split doubleheader, in which tickets are sold separately for each game, or give up the gate revenue.
The Cardinals are averaging more than 29,000 fans a game.
The Dodgers aren’t scheduled to return to St. Louis in the regular season, so making up a rainout as a single game would be complicated.
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