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A late home run from Kolten Wong and John Lackey's stellar outing put the Cardinals on the brink of their fourth straight trip to the NLCS.
The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 in Game 3 of their NLDS matchup on Monday at Busch Stadium. Kolten Wong's two-run home run in the seventh inning broke a tie game and helped bring St. Louis to within one win of eliminating the Dodgers for the second straight postseason. The two clubs will meet again Tuesday afternoon in Game 4, with the Cards hoping to advance to their fourth straight NLCS.
St. Louis starter John Lackey came into Game 3 with some questions to answer after an up-and-down second half that saw his fastball velocity dip. Except for one inning, though, Lackey shut down the Dodgers' lineup, holding Los Angeles to five hits and one earned run.
Lackey's only blemish came in the sixth inning when Yasiel Puig hit a leadoff triple and came around to score on Hanley Ramirez's subsequent double. Beyond that, the right-hander gave the Cardinals exactly what they were hoping for when they acquired him prior to the trade deadline in July. The 35-year-old allowed only six Dodgers batters to reach base in the outing.
Dodgers starter Hyun-jin Ryu hung in against the Cardinals' bats Monday night despite missing nearly a month with shoulder discomfort. The left-hander threw six innings and allowed just five hits and an earned run, while striking out four batters. The Cardinals looked primed for big rallies in the second and third innings, but on both occasions Ryu successfully stifled the threats. After allowing a home run to Matt Carpenter (his third this series) and a single to Matt Holliday in the third, Ryu went on to retire the final 10 batters he faced.
Ryu's outing did nothing to ease the Dodgers' relief woes, though. Lefty Scott Elbert came into the game in the seventh and promptly surrendered a double to Yadier Molina before giving up Wong's go-ahead blast. Brian Wilson loaded the bases in the eighth before Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was forced to turn to J.P. Howell, who got Los Angeles out of the jam by inducing a double play off the bat of Wong.
However, Howell's heroics couldn't save the game for the Dodgers. Trevor Rosenthal gave up two straight hits to Ramirez and Carl Crawford in the ninth, but the Cardinals closer induced back-to-back fly outs from Juan Uribe and A.J. Ellis to clinch the victory.
With their season on the line, the Dodgers will turn to ace Clayton Kershaw on Tuesday, who will look to put a disappointing Game 1 performance behind him. Kershaw will be pitching on three days' rest, with Zack Greinke waiting to pitch Game 5 if the Dodgers can extend the series. The Cardinals will hand the ball to right-hander Shelby Miller, who will be making his first career playoff start after barely appearing in the team's 2013 postseason run.
