Dodgers, Cards take drama to St. Louis deadlocked
Ryu, Lackey square off in Game 3 after a pair of one-run games in NLDS
Game 2 of the National League Division Series didn't have all the offensive or extracurricular fireworks of Game 1, but it had plenty of drama, it ended in a Dodgers win and it brought this NLDS to a familiar place that astute observers of the game probably expected all along: dead even.
Matt Kemp's home run to lead off the eighth inning gave Los Angeles a 3-2 victory to match the Cardinals' 10-9 win the night before. Now the clubs will depart Los Angeles for St. Louis, where Game 3 is set to begin Monday night in Busch Stadium at 9 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1, with Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu going up against Cardinals righty John Lackey.
After these teams' physical and mental battle through six games in last year's NL Championship Series and the events of Game 1 of this series -- when the benches emptied in the third inning after Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright hit Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig with a pitch -- it seems only fitting that this has become a best-of-three.
"We know this is a good team, and offensively, they've got a lot of potential to do some serious damage," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of the Dodgers after Game 2. "It doesn't matter who they have pitching, they have got good pitchers yet to come.
"We like what we have got as well, and we believe that our offense is going to continue to put together those kind of tough at-bats. But getting out of here with that win yesterday, that was big for us. This one here is fresh on our minds, and it was there and we let it slip away. We've got to let that go and figure out how to put [together] a good game on [Monday]."
St. Louis will enjoy the surroundings a lot more. Dodger Stadium was loud and filled to the rafters with more than 54,000 fans for Games 1 and 2, and now the series shifts to the Cards' comfy environment near the Gateway Arch, where the crowd will be bathed in red and the legends of Cardinals lore will be watching and providing inspiration for every pitch.
The Cardinals won all three games at Busch in last year's NLCS, including the 9-0 Game 6 clincher in which they beat Clayton Kershaw, and this year the Cardinals took two of three in the clubs' only regular-season series in St. Louis in July.
Then again, this series has already proven that assumptions don't do much good. Who, after all, would have expected a Kershaw-Wainwright Game 1 matchup to end with a 10-9 score?
The roller-coaster aspect of the two games was more apropos. The Dodgers blew a 6-2 lead by giving up eight runs in the seventh inning of Game 1, but the Cardinals almost blew that lead and barely hung on. In Game 2, the Dodgers were up, 2-0, until Matt Carpenter's two-run homer tied it in the eighth, but Kemp's homer put the Dodgers back on top for good.
Game 3 will be a showcase for Ryu and Lackey. Ryu hasn't pitched since Sept. 12 because of shoulder problems, but the Dodgers say they are confident in where he is health-wise. Lackey is well-known around baseball for being an October specialist. Just ask these very Cardinals, who lost to him in the deciding Game 6 of last year's World Series when he was pitching for the Boston Red Sox.
So once again, it's a meeting in St. Louis as the Division Series restarts from scratch in a pivotal Game 3.
"I think we're seeing two teams that don't really want to go home and that are fighting for every game and every out and every pitch, and it's what you want," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "It's what everybody wants to see at this time of year."
Dodgers: Club confident Ryu's ready
• Ryu, who was 14-7 with a 3.38 ERA in 26 starts this season, hasn't pitched since shoulder woes forced a shutdown on Sept. 12. Still, the Dodgers are comfortable with handing him the ball for Game 3.
"One thing about Hyun-Jin that's kind of encouraging for us is this has happened in the past where he's had a long layoff, and he always tends to come back and be extremely strong," Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said. "He's not somebody who we feel like needs a ton of work in between or a lot to get him back going again.
"So we're extremely confident from all indications. He came out of his simulated game great the other day. He feels like he's back close to a 100 percent and he's going to be a big factor for us hopefully getting to where we need to go. We definitely need him throwing a lot of innings for us this next month."
• Speculation before Game 2 that Kershaw might have been tipping his pitches in the Cardinals' eight-run seventh inning didn't have any merit, according to the Dodgers.
"Matt Holliday's an amazing hitter, Jhonny Peralta is an amazing hitter, Yadier Molina is an amazing hitter," Ellis said. "And these guys are guys with championship pedigrees. So I think we've got to give them all the credit."
• Outfielder Carl Crawford went hitless in Game 2, snapping his postseason hitting streak at 11 games, a Dodgers franchise record.
Cardinals: Lackey an October staple
• Lackey was brought into St. Louis via a July 31 trade with the Red Sox in part because the veteran right-hander has so much postseason experience. Lackey beat the Cardinals last year in the deciding Game 6 of the World Series, and he also won Game 7 of the 2002 World Series while an Angels rookie. Now he gets the ball for his new team's first home game in October 2014.
"I'm at the point of my career where being in the postseason and having the opportunity to win championships is definitely the most important thing," Lackey said. "I take pride in trying to pitch well at this time of year, and I've been fortunate to be on some good teams that had that opportunity."
Lackey has made 19 postseason appearances, and 17 of those have been starts. He's 6-5 with a 3.03 ERA in 104 playoff innings.
• Rookie outfielder Oscar Taveras notched his first career postseason hit with a pinch-hit single off J.P. Howell in the eighth inning of Game 2.
• Carpenter is 4-for-8 in the series with two homers, two doubles and six RBIs. He is now tied with Carlos Beltran (2013) and Daniel Descalso (2012) for the third-most RBIs in an NLDS in Cardinals history.
Worth noting
• Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .317 (19-for-60) with two doubles, four homers and 10 RBIs in 16 career postseason games.
• The Cardinals were 32-23 in games decided by one run in 2014. They were one of four teams (Miami 35, San Diego 33, Baltimore 32) with 32 or more wins in one-run games.
