ST. LOUIS—Masyn Winn, Alec Burleson and Nolan Arenado homered and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5–2 on Saturday night, August 17, to snap a five-game losing streak.
“It was good to put everything together with the start, the bullpen, the defense and, obviously, the offense,” Burleson said. “We just need to do that consistently here until the end and let it shake out how it’s going to.”
Andre Pallante (5–6) allowed two runs on four hits in seven innings. JoJo Romero pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and Ryan Helsley had a perfect ninth inning for his major league- leading 38th save.
“He’s been really consistent,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said about Pallante. “We’re continuing to see him get better and better as the season goes. Just more confident too. There’s a certain presence to him that he continues to build off of. He’s making pitches against tough hitters, and that sinker just kept people honest. But, overall, man, we’re just seeing him do a nice job, and the confidence is a key there as well.”
Shohei Ohtani went 2 for 3 with a homer and a two stolen bases for Los Angeles. He broke a out of a 10-game slump where he went 5 for 44 (.144) without a multi-hit game.
“I think having the right posture when I’m looking at the pitcher is something that’s really important,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “I feel like it’s a little off. But in the meantime, when things are off, it’s something I can make up for by having a better approach at the plate.
Bobby Miller (1–3) allowed four runs on eight hits and four wild pitches in 4 2/3 innings after being recalled from Triple-A Oklahoma City prior to the game.
“I feel like if I got ahead of a lot more batters today, strike one, get 0-1, it would have been a completely different ball game.” Miller said. “The delivery felt a lot better, walks were down, but I’m still falling behind in counts.”
Winn homered to center leading off the fifth to restore St. Louis’ two-run lead after Ohtani lined his National League-leading 38th home run in the top of the inning to cut it to 3–2.
Arenado homered in the eighth.
Burleson hit his team-leading 21st home run of the season in the third inning to give St. Louis a 2–1 lead.
“It was an auto swing,” Burleson said. “I was swinging no matter where it was, kind of like the first at bat. I couldn’t really see the first at bat so I was just kind of auto swinging. I seem to do that a lot. It’s probably not the right approach. You don’t want to teach your kids that.”
Ohtani drew an eight-pitch walk to leadoff the game, stole second base, and scored on Freddie Freeman’s single to give the Dodgers an early 1–0 lead. Willson Contreras lined a single to right field to drive in Burleson and tie it at 1.
Freddie Freeman departed the game in the middle of the eighth inning after bruising his right middle finger fielding Victor Scott II’s ground ball in the seventh inning.
