Dodgers @ Cardinals 7.24 recap: Welcome to the Bigs, Mike Mayers

Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals

Scott Kazmir vs. Mike Mayers

7:08 p.m. CT
Busch Stadium - St. Louis, Missouri

Today's Lineups -

Some News -

• Mayers makes his big league debut.  This year he's 8-2 with a 2.62 ERA between Springfield and Memphis this year with pretty decent peripherals.  His start marks the first time the Cardinals have used a starting pitcher outside of their 5 on opening day.  They're the last team to have to use a sixth starter this year.
• I hate Grichuk leading off.
• The D-backs downed the Reds 9-8 - MLB.com
• Pittsburgh over Philadelphia 5-4 - MLB.com
• Chicago took down the Brewers 6-5 - MLB.com

Things that happened -

Top halves -

Mike Mayers' first batter he faced in the big leagues was Chase Utley, who drove a soft liner for a single up the middle.  Corey Seager placed a grounder just fair over the bag at third for another single.  In both instances, they were sort of lucky hits.  Justin Turner worked a 7-pitch walk.  Then Adrian Gonzalez said "welcome to the bigs, kid" in the most brutal way.  He launched a Mayers slider into the batter's eye in center field, plating 4 with one swing of the bat.  Howie Kendrick doubled on the next pitch, and wow.  Yasmani Grandal represented Mayers' first out and strikeout in the bigs.  Andrew Toles grounded out to short, and then Joc Pederson walked, starting some action in the bullpen for the Birds.  Pederson stole a base, just in front of a single up the middle by pitcher Scott Kazmir to plate two more.  Chase Utley mercifully grounded out to second to end the inning.  Mayers used 45 pitches to get through it.  Dodgers up 6-0.

Things didn't get better for Mayers in the second.  Seager grounded out, but not before working Mayers for 10 more pitches.  Turner singled, and then scored when Gonzalez singled and a throw from Piscotty got away and into the dugout to allow the run and Gonzales to get all the way to third.  Kendrick homered to knock Mayers out for good.  Seth Maness came in and got the next two guys, although Grandal drove a ball to the wall.  Dodgers up 9-1.

Mayer's final line: 1 1/3 IP, 8 H, 9 R, 9 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 62 pitches thrown.

Maness continued into the third.  He worked around a leadoff Pederson single.

And the fourth.  Gonzalez singled, his third hit of the game, but Maness worked around it.  Gyorko made a nice play coming in on a slow Kendrick grounder.

Maness in the fifth.  Pederson singled up the middle, but tried to stretch it to a double, which wasn't a good move.  Pham gunned him at second.

Trevor Rosenthal took over in the sixth.  Seager singled.  Turner doubled.  But Trevor was able to strand the two on base with no runs coming across the plate.

Rosenthal again in the seventh.  He walked Grandal.  He walked Toles with 10 pitches.  Then he walked Pederson with 4.  Yikes.  Bases loaded with no outs.  Matheny double switched in Bowman and Rosario.  On Bowman's first pitch, he got a 5-2-3 double play off Scott Van Slyke's bat.  Utley worked a walk to reload the bases.  But Seager grounded out to first to end the threat.  Good job Matt Bowman!

Bowman in the eighth.  He put them down in 1-2-3 fashion.

Seung Hwan-Oh in the ninth.  Grandal got hit by a pitch.  Diaz made a great sliding catch way out in left field on a Pederson fly ball.  With two outs, Oh issued a deep count walk to Chris Taylor.  But Utley flew out to end the inning.

Bottom halves -

Randal Grichuk flew out to left field to lead things off.  Aledmys Diaz made Kazmir work, 9 pitches worth, but finally popped out to third.  Stephen Piscotty made him work, too, but his ended in an infield single.  Matt Holliday put the Cards on the board, doubling off the wall over left fielder Howie Kendrick's head.  A Gyorko groundout ended the inning.  Dodgers up 6-1.

Yadi played a funny joke on everyone when he drove a ball over Toles' head in right, and made like he was gonna go to third, but then held up at second with a big ol' Yadi smile, which is one of my favorite things.  Tommy Pham did a strong man homer over the Cards bullpen to cut into the lead just a little bit.  Kolten Wong scared everyone, then.  He grounded to first and tried to beat Kazmir to first base (and wasn't quite able to).  He pulled up jumping and favoring one of his legs, and it was hard to tell exactly what happened.  He had to make a sudden change in direction to avoid the umpire as he flew past the bag at first, and perhaps the injury happened then.  He hobbled off the field.  Then we got to see a rare treasure - a Seth Maness at bat.  He put up a good fight, fouling off several pitches, but ultimately struck out.

Kazmir had a nice easy 1-2-3 third.

and fourth.  Also, Wong stayed in the game after his apparent injury.

Greg Garcia pinch hit for Maness in the fifth.  He was awesome and singled up the middle.  But he was left stranded as Kazmir got the next three.

the fifth was Kazmir's last.  His final line: 5.0 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 96 pitches thrown

Pedro Baez in the sixth.  He did a nice job of retiring Cardinals.

Adam Liberatore in the seventh.  Pham got robbed on an extremely high full count fastball that the umpire called a strike.  It was a not good call.  Wong singled on a crazy infield chopper that nobody could really make a play on.  Rosario walked.  Grichuk did as well and it took like 10 hours.  Then a pitching change to Joe Blanton.  Diaz sac-flew to right to score Wong and move Rosario to third.  Piscotty went from a 1-2 count to a full count.  Then he doubled down the line in left, scoring both baserunners!  Holliday struck out.  Dodgers up 9-6.

Blanton in the eighth.  Gyorko grounded out.  Pinch hitter Matt Adams drove one to the wall, but into Pederson's mitt.  Pham grounded out.

Kenley Jansen came in to try and close it out for the Dodgers.  He did so.

Final Notes -

• Mayers' ERA is 60.75!  He wasout so quick, I don't really have any good bit of analysis to provide.  He gave up lots of runs really quickly.
• There were sooooooo many foul balls in this game.  It was slower than ... something really slow.
• Fangraphs
• Game notes: Dodgers | Cardinals

Looking ahead -

An awesome pitching matchup tomorrow.  Carlos Martinez will be opposed in Citi Field by Noah Syndergaard and the Mets.  The game will start at 6:10 CT.