Cardinals at Dodgers
Ace Clayton Kershaw tries to bounce back from a sub-par performance - by his standards - when the Los Angeles Dodgers host the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday for the second contest of their three-game series. Kershaw issued a season-high five walks but passed Sandy Koufax for third place on the Dodgers' all-time strikeouts list in an 8-2 victory over San Diego on Friday.
“I heard the crowd, but I was a little bit frustrated with myself at the time,” Kershaw, who has recorded 2,397 strikeouts - one more than Koufax - and trails only Don Sutton and Don Drysdale in club annals, told reporters. “I have the ball right here. It’s really cool, any time you get mentioned in the same breath as Sandy. He wouldn’t be proud of this one, though. Thankful I got through six. Can’t even talk about it, I was so bad.” Miles Mikolas takes the mound on Tuesday for St. Louis (58-53), which fell 2 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central and one-half game behind Philadelphia and Washington for a wild-card spot as Monday's 8-0 loss marked its third straight setback. The Cardinals' offense has gone cold as the team has scored only 19 runs in its last eight games, six of which it lost. The Dodgers, meanwhile, continue rolling toward their seventh straight NL West title with a whopping 18-game lead on Arizona and San Francisco while boasting the best record in baseball (75-40) after winning three in a row and six of seven.
TV: 10:10 p.m. ET, FS Midwest (St. Louis), SportsNet LA (Los Angeles)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Cardinals RH Miles Mikolas (7-11, 4.00 ERA) vs. Dodgers LH Clayton Kershaw (10-2, 2.85)
Mikolas allowed an unearned run and six hits in 5 2/3 innings of a tough-luck 2-0 loss versus the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. The 30-year-old Floridian is 2-2 with a 2.03 ERA in his last four starts, with St. Louis scoring only two runs during the setbacks. Mikolas won his only start against Los Angeles, yielding three runs and five hits in six innings of a 4-3 victory on April 8.
Kershaw allowed two runs and six hits while registering five strikeouts in six innings on Friday, improving to 7-0 with a 2.35 ERA in 11 home starts this season. The 31-year-old Texan has recorded five straight quality starts, going 3-0 with a 1.74 ERA during that span. Paul Goldschmidt is 12-for-54 with three home runs and 19 strikeouts from his days with Arizona while Dexter Fowler is batting .375 with 12 strikeouts in 48 at-bats versus Kershaw, who is 7-5 with a 3.07 ERA in 17 starts against the Cardinals.
WALK-OFFS
1. Dodgers RF Cody Bellinger on Monday belted his 37th home run of the season and is tied with the Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout for second in the majors - two behind Milwaukee's Christian Yelich, who hit a pair on Monday.
2. St. Louis' Paul DeJong needs one home run to become the first Cardinals shortstop to record multiple 20-homer seasons after he belted 25 in 2017.
3. The all-time series is tied 1,030-1,030 since St. Louis joined the NL in 1892.