ST. LOUIS – Brandon McCarthy left Friday’s game in the seventh inning due to cramping in his right calf.
His cramps eventually passed. But the Dodgers offense tightened up uncomfortably at inopportune times all night long – and into the next day.
The Dodgers outhit the St. Louis Cardinals 11-1 through the first six innings and 14-8 overall but went 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position, stranding 13 runners on base. That left no margin for error for the Dodgers bullpen – and they made too many.
Kenley Jansen suffered his fifth blown save of the season – and second since the All-Star break – when he allowed a tying home run to Jedd Gyorko with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. It took another seven innings and Friday had become Saturday when Matt Adams crushed a 444-foot solo home run off Bud Norris to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory in 16 innings.
The 16-inning marathon matched the longest game in the history of the Dodgers-Cardinals rivalry which stretches into the 19th century.
“That’s something with our guys – getting guys on base, runners in scoring position and just can’t break through,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his team, 22nd in the majors with a .247 average with runners in scoring position. “I think you just see guys trying to do too much and get out of their approach.”
Nonetheless, the Dodgers seemed to have found their hero when Justin Turner broke a tie and gave them a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth with a solo home run, his third home run in the past two games.
Turner’s 14 home runs and 36 RBI since June 10 are the most in the majors. Since returning from the All-Star break, Turner is 12 for 32 (.375) with five home runs and 12 RBI (including six of the Dodgers’ nine over the past two days).
That lead disappeared when Gyorko hit his sixth home run in his past six games, jumping on a first-pitch cutter from Jansen and sending it 401 feet into the left-field seats.
“I just tried to locate down and away,” Jansen said. “Just kind of misfired. He got lucky on it and it went out.”
The blown save was Jansen’s fifth this season. He had just two last year.
“It’s part of my life,” said Jansen who can become a free agent after the season. “As long as you’re doing this job. It’s not the first one. It’s not going to be the last one.”
It’s certainly not the first time the Dodgers’ offense have slipped in the clutch. Not coincidentally, they were 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position last Saturday when Jansen couldn’t close out a 1-0 lead in the ninth. They lost in 12 innings.
Their only hit with a runner in scoring position Friday came in the first inning – an RBI single by Corey Seager (one of four hits in the game for him). Howie Kendrick extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a solo home run in the sixth.
All that did was tie the score, 2-2.After the seventh inning, the Dodgers offense dried up entirely.
Thirteen of 14 batters were retired by Cardinals relievers at one point, with Turner’s ninth-inning home run the only interruption. They had just one hit in extra innings, a bloop double by Austin Barnes with two outs in the top of the 15th.
Norris, Wednesday’s starter in Washington, was pressed into service as a reliever in the 15th inning, the ninth pitcher in the game for the Dodgers – who used eight in nine innings Thursday. Adams crushed an 0-and-1 fastball from Norris with one out in the 16th to end the game.
“We were stretched as thin as we could go,” Roberts said. “We wanted to stay away from Petey (Pedro Baez) and Luis (Avilan the only reliever who didn’t get in the game). They were both pretty sore and were supposed to be down. But Petey still gave us an inning.”
Roberts said he still expects Norris to make his scheduled start Tuesday in Los Angeles against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Contact the writer: bplunkett@ocregister.com
