ST. LOUIS — Kolten Wong hit a two-run homer to snap a seventh-inning tie, Matt Carpenter went deep for the third straight game and John Lackey lived up to his big-game reputation as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 on Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five National League Division Series.
Facing elimination in St. Louis for the second consecutive postseason, the Dodgers will turn to ace Clayton Kershaw on short rest Tuesday night in Game 4. Shelby Miller makes his first career postseason start for the Cardinals, one win from a fourth straight trip to the NL Championship Series.
The Cardinals finished off Los Angeles in a six-game NLCS last fall, knocking out Kershaw in the fifth inning of a 9-0 blowout in the final game.
Two runners reached against Trevor Rosenthal in the ninth before he earned his second save of the series — with an assist from the grounds crew on a rainy night.
With two runners on, Rosenthal missed badly on consecutive pitches to Juan Uribe. Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina and manager Mike Matheny went to the mound, and Matheny motioned toward plate umpire Dale Scott.
The grounds crew was called out to apply a drying agent and rake the mound. Rosenthal threw a pair of practice pitches and found his footing, retiring the next two batters on flies to right for his sixth career postseason save.
Hanley Ramirez had three of the Dodgers’ seven hits, including an RBI double in the sixth.
St. Louis hit 105 homers in the regular season, the second-lowest total in the majors, ahead of only the Kansas City Royals. Wong’s two-run shot off loser Scott Elbert put the Cardinals ahead 3-1.
Carpenter connected in the third. He and Albert Pujols are the only Cardinals players to homer in three consecutive postseason games.
Pujols did it in 2004, the first two in the NL Division Series and the third in the NLCS.
Photo via Scott Rovak/USA TODAY Sports Images
