LOS ANGELES — Nearly down to their last out, the Dodgers finally found some offense without Shohei Ohtani.
Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run double to left-center field in the ninth inning and the Dodgers rallied for a 3-2 walk-off victory over the St. Louis Cardinals to avoid a three-game sweep.
The Dodgers received 3⅓ scoreless innings from the bullpen after Tarik Skubal managed to keep the game close despite allowing 10 hits.
Ohtani received the day off on Thursday after he struck out four times Wednesday and winced in pain late in the game with an apparent arm injury. There has also been a knee injury to contend with, all of which has led to a pain in the neck. And not a figurative one.
Tommy Edman moved into the leadoff spot and did his part with four hits, including a fifth-inning double and two runs scored. But action on the base paths was otherwise limited by Cardinals left-hander Quinn Mathews, an Orange County native in his fifth career game.
Mathews, a former Aliso Niguel High standout, gave up one run on four hits over five innings and kept the Cardinals in front despite issuing four walks. After going 1 for 18 with runners in scoring position in Wednesday’s 10-inning loss, the Dodgers started 0 for 8 in those scenarios on Thursday before finally delivering a clutch hit to end the game.
Skubal walked a fine line but ended up allowing just two runs over 5⅔ innings. It was the second-shortest outing in six starts for the left-hander since he was acquired in a trade-deadline deal with the Detroit Tigers.
While Skubal showed the art of pitching, the Dodgers continue to wait for the masterpiece that led to consecutive American League Cy Young Awards. He had multiple batters on base in each of the first three innings before pitching into the sixth.
St. Louis opened the game with consecutive singles from Jose Fermin and Ivan Herrera. Jordan Walker struck out before Joshua Baez rolled an RBI single to right field.
Three more singles in the third gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Rookie Leo Bernal made it three hits in three games to start his career before Ramon Urias followed with a run-scoring hit to left.
The Dodgers broke through against Mathews in the fifth. Edman doubled and advanced to third on a ground ball by Teoscar Hernandez. He scored on a Mathews wild pitch.
While Alex Call started the game in the designated hitter spot for Ohtani, while batting eighth, the left-handed power bat of Dalton Rushing replaced him in the sixth. Rushing struck out in each of his two at-bats, including in the eighth with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Kyle Tucker continued to struggle, going 0 for 3 with a walk. He is now 3 for 24 over his past eight games and has driven in just four runs since Aug. 10. The last of his 11 home runs came on Aug. 8.
Edman stepped up again in the ninth with a one-out single. He stole second base just before Betts walked. Hernandez went to a full count against Cardinals right-hander Riley O’Brien (3-7) before hitting a sinker into the gap with Betts diving into home plate with the winning run.
More to come on this story.