Rich Hill’s last time facing the St. Louis Cardinals was a start to forget as he issued a career-high seven walks. He righted the ship at Busch Stadium on Memorial Day, and the Los Angeles Dodgers received contributions throughout their lineup en route to winning a season-high tying fifth consecutive game.
Utley led off the third inning with his third home run in the past five games, and Corey Seager’s two-out RBI single extended the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0. Mike Leake surrendered his second home run of the game in fourth inning, on a Cody Bellinger blast to right field.
Hill took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth inning. Up to that point the Cardinals’ lone baserunners had come on a walk and hit by pitch. He retired the first nine batters faced, with four strikeouts.
After drawing a walk, Tommy Pham advanced to second base with one out in the fourth inning on a pickoff throw that got by Adrian Gonzalez. Matt Carpenter was hit by a pitch, and the Cardinals proceeded to pull off a double steal.
Jedd Gyorko’s sacrifice fly trimmed the Dodgers’ lead to 3-1 before Hill could get out of the inning. His no-hitter was lost on an Aledmys Diaz dribbler that rolled into center field for a leadoff single.
Paul DeJong reached on a soft hit to put two on with nobody out. Hill induced a double play but then walked Leake. Dexter Fowler popped-out to strand runners at the corners. Hill matched his season high by completing five innings and set a season high with 86 pitches.
Utley pulled a single into right field with one out in the seventh inning, and advanced to second base on the throw to third. Yasiel Puig lifted a flyball to left field, not particularly deep, but Tommy Pham set himself up poorly, allowing Chris Taylor to score on the sacrifice fly.
Sergio Romo allowed a one-out double to DeJong in the seventh inning, then was the beneficiary of good fortune. A grounder to Seager ate him up and carried into left field, where Bellinger barehanded the ball and fired a strike to home plate to nail DeJong.
Romo then struck out pinch-hitter Greg Garcia to preserve the Dodgers’ lead. Logan Forsythe’s home run to lead off the eighth inning extended it to 5-1. The homer was Forsythe’s first with the Dodgers.
Pedro Baez, Romo, Chris Hatcher and Brandon Morrow combined to keep the Cardinals off the board. That extended the scoreless streak from the Dodgers bullpen to 21.2 innings, dating back to a home run Romo allowed last Wednesday.
Morrow joined the club Monday when Alex Wood was put on the 10-day disabled list with left SC joint inflammation.
Los Angeles improved to a season-high 12 games above .500 with their victory.
