Carpenter, Cards club Kershaw to capture unexpected slugfest

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES

Matt Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals won a slugfest no one saw coming.

Carpenter hit a go-ahead, three-run double off a wilting Clayton Kershaw in an eight-run seventh inning, and the Cardinals rallied for a 10-9 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a fiery NL Division Series opener Friday.

“It makes it more fun when you’re playing against somebody that is known as being the best pitcher in the game,” Carpenter said. “When I get in those at-bats versus him I just try to fight. He’s coming right after me, seems like every time I face him I’m down 0-2 and I got to fight my way back.”

It was 92 degrees at gametime, and things quickly got more heated.

St. Louis overcame a five-run deficit against Kershaw and held on when Trevor Rosenthal blew a 100-mph fastball past Yasiel Puig with a runner on third to end a back-and-forth game that lasted nearly four hours.

“I’m sure everybody in baseball was expecting a one-run game,” Carpenter said. “We ended up getting one, but we didn’t think it would be 10-9.”

In a matchup of 20-game winners, Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright hit Puig with a pitch leading off the third, triggering a bench-clearing scrum. There was shoving and shouting, but no punches were thrown.

Wainwright succumbed first on the mound, allowing six runs and 11 hits in 42/3 innings. But Kershaw failed once again in the postseason.

The left-hander whose 1.77 ERA led the major leagues for the fourth consecutive year came in eager to erase the memory of his poor showing in Game 6 of last year’s NL Championship Series, when the Dodgers were eliminated by the Cardinals.

And Kershaw dominated through the first six innings, retiring 16 in a row between homers by Randal Grichuk and Carpenter.

But he collapsed in a shaky seventh, when he gave up five of the Cardinals’ eight runs and became the first pitcher in postseason history to allow seven runs in consecutive starts. He yielded that many in losing Game 6 last year.

“He gives up a hit or two and you always feel like he’s going to get out of it, he’s always going to rebound,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

Kershaw, a heavy favorite to win a third Cy Young Award in four years, fell to 1-4 with a career 5.19 ERA in the postseason.

The Dodgers rallied again in the ninth, pulling to 10-9 after Dee Gordon’s RBI groundout scored A.J. Ellis, who singled. But Puig struck out swinging against Rosenthal, who reached 100 mph on five of the seven pitches in the at-bat.

Adrian Gonzalez pulled the Dodgers to 10-8 with a two-run homer in the eighth off Randy Choate. They had the potential tying run at the plate when pinch-hitter Justin Turner grounded to third to end the inning.

The Cardinals ripped four consecutive singles to center field to open the seventh. Matt Adams and Jon Jay had RBI singles, drawing them to 6-4.

Carpenter then doubled to deep right, driving in three runs for a 7-6 lead and chasing Kershaw. He allowed eight runs and eight hits in 62/3 innings, struck out 10 and walked none.

Pedro Baez came on and walked Grichuk. Matt Holliday followed with a three-run homer, silencing the 54,265 blue towel-waving fans and extending the Cardinals’ lead to 10-6.

Kershaw allowed a two-out homer to Carpenter in the sixth that left St. Louis trailing 6-2.