Cardinals End Dodgers Winning Streak, Cubs Drop Sixth Straight Loss

By ESPN

A late home run by Dexter Fowler and a strong outing by Carlos Martinez helped the St. Louis Cardinals end the Los Angeles Dodgers' winning streak.

Fowler hit the tiebreaking homer in the eighth inning to back Martinez and give the Cardinals a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers Wednesday night.

"It's been a tough stretch against L.A." said Martinez through an interpreter. "We lost the last two so I was really focused going into this game because I wanted to win it."

Martinez (4-4) allowed one run on four hits while striking out nine as he pitched eight innings to help St. Louis snap a three-game losing streak.

"The guy comes in and can put a stop to a tough run," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny. "We needed a special performance and he answered."

Fowler had a premonition before the game that a homer would come into play.

"I told somebody before the game, we're going to hit it over the wall," said Fowler. "I can't hit it to anybody."

Ross Stripling (0-3) lost for the first time since April 26 as he surrendered Fowler's seventh home run of the season, a 429-foot shot to right-center field. The Dodgers saw their six-game winning streak end.

"You want to win them all but I think for us it's, obviously, in the midst of a nice streak," said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. "But we want to play good baseball and they pitched well and they beat us tonight."

Seung-Hwan Oh pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save in 14 opportunities this season.

Hyun-Jin Ryu returned to the rotation in place of Alex Wood after earning the save last Wednesday, May 24 versus St. Louis in his first career relief appearance. Ryu allowed one run on three hits in six innings in his first start since May 11 at Colorado.

"(Ryu) matched (Martinez) pitch for pitch but in that seventh inning we had to take a chance on scoring a run," said Roberts. "So we fired that bullet and went to Ross who was fresh and rested."

Cardinals rookie second baseman Paul DeJong drove in Tommy Pham in the second inning after Chris Taylor initially broke in on a ball that ultimately went over his head for a double. The run was St. Louis' first with Martinez on the mound since May 13.

Los Angeles tied the game 1-1 in the sixth inning on Adrian Gonzalez's sacrifice fly that drove in Corey Seager.

Padres 2, Cubs 1

Sweeping anybody is a big deal for the rebuilding, rookie-laden San Diego Padres.

Make it the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs, and that's huge for a team that hopes to be contending by 2019 or 2020.

San Diego rookie Franchy Cordero tripled leading off the eighth inning and scored on Yangervis Solarte's fielder's choice, and the Padres beat Chicago 2-1 on Wednesday to hand the Cubs their season-high sixth straight loss.

Luis Perdomo, in just his second big league season, and two relievers combined to hold the struggling Cubs to three hits. The Padres won their season-best fourth straight game and swept the Cubs for the first time since August 2012.

The 22-year-old Cordero, who batted leadoff and struck out in his first three at-bats, made his major league debut on Saturday. Rookie slugger Hunter Renfroe batted cleanup in this one. And the Padres started rookie Luis Torrens at catcher, giving Austin Hedges a day off.

Perdomo pitched seven strong innings a day after rookie Dinelson Lamet produced another solid outing, striking out eight in five innings of a 6-2 win to improve to 2-0.

"Playing that way, pitching that way, seeing Dinelson Lamet throw the ball the way he's thrown it and seeing it in Perdomo, and now you see it in a group of young guys, you ... don't have to dream on, you can just believe in because you see what they've got," manager Andy Green said. "It's exciting to see those guys show up and start to do some really good things."

The Padres have won four straight for the first time since August 2015.

Nice, but Green is more impressed with the way the young guys have played.

"Those kind of things will be impactful for the organization in the future," he said. "Young guys all over the baseball field and they're doing a nice job right now."

Cordero tripled to right-center off Koji Uehara (1-3) leading off the eighth. Solarte hit a grounder to second baseman Ian Happ, whose throw home wasn't in time to get Cordero.

Cordero showed his speed on both the triple and his dash home.

"I'm really happy, really excited to be able to get the triple and to score the run there," he said through a translator. "And just really, really happy to have won the game. `'

Green said Cordero has "special tools inside of him. He's young and a lot of young guys don't have the resiliency to come up with the game on the line in the eighth inning and get the triple -- and most people don't turn that into a triple, either. He was flying around the bases and had the speed to score on the groundball to second base there on the contact play, get his foot in there clearly."

The Cubs, who were swept at the Dodgers last weekend, finished their first winless trip of at least six games since August 2012, when they also lost three at Los Angeles and three at San Diego.

Overall the Cubs have lost seven in a row on the road.

"You've got to give their guy credit," manager Joe Maddon said. "Perdomo threw the ball really well today; good velocity, good sinking velocity. He forced a lot of weak contact, threw a lot of strikes, and they were able to make one more play than us."

Perdomo allowed one run and three hits, struck out four and walked two.

Brad Hand (1-3) pitched a perfect eighth for the win, and Brandon Maurer worked the ninth for his eighth save.

The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second. Anthony Rizzo was hit by a pitch for the second time in three games and didn't look happy about it. He tossed his bat aside and slowly walked to first. He stole second, advanced on Happ's fly to center field and scored on Willson Contreras' two-out infield single.

Ryan Schimpf tied it with a leadoff homer against Jake Arrieta in the second. Shimpf came in hitting .166. Of his 25 hits, 14 are home runs.

Arrieta went six innings, holding San Diego to one run and five hits while striking out seven and walking two.

Red Sox 4, White Sox 1

It was just a game, Pablo Sandoval said. Nothing more, nothing less.

What comes next is more important for the one-time slugger and his Boston Red Sox.

Sandoval hit a tiebreaking single in Boston's four-run sixth inning and Drew Pomeranz struck out eight in his second straight win, helping the Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox 4-1 on Wednesday night.

Sandoval went 3 for 4 in his first game since he was activated from the disabled list Tuesday after being sidelined by a sprained right knee. It was an encouraging sign for the Red Sox, who could use some help at the plate with Dustin Pedroia on the DL due to a sprained left wrist.

But Sandoval, hampered by issues with his weight and injuries since he signed a $95 million, five-year contract with Boston before the 2015 season, deftly deflected questions about what his fourth multihit game of the season meant about the state of his game.

"I just want to do my job," he said. "I don't want to think and then the personal stuff, I just want to help my team to win games. That's the most important thing for me."

Chicago wasted a spotless start by Mike Pelfrey in its second consecutive loss after winning four of five. The big right-hander struck out five while pitching five scoreless innings of two-hit ball, leaving him with a 1.13 ERA over his last three games.

"I feel good about where I'm at, but need to find a way to maybe eliminate some wasted pitches here and there and be a little more efficient to stay in the game," he said.

Pelfrey threw 83 pitches, 48 for strikes. He has thrown as many as 100 pitches this year, but manager Rick Renteria made it sound as if his workload was predetermined.

"We had gone into the game today with our game plan already set up," he said. "He was going to give us five, hold them there and we were going to give it over to the bullpen, basically. Unfortunately, it didn't work out for us in that particular inning."

Anthony Swarzak (2-1) came in and the Red Sox jumped all over him, loading the bases with one out in the sixth. Josh Rutledge beat out a potential double-play grounder, tying it at 1, and Sandoval followed with a single to left.

After the runners moved up on a wild pitch, Christian Vazquez hit a two-run double into left-center to give Boston a 4-1 lead. Swarzak had allowed just three earned runs in 23 1/3 innings this season coming into the game.

"I felt like I made some quality pitches, but at the same time, I feel like I didn't put guys away when I had the opportunity to," Swarzak said.

That was more than enough for Pomeranz (5-3), who allowed one run and seven hits in a season-high seven innings. The left-hander also pitched well in his previous start, striking out 11 over six innings in a 6-2 victory against Texas.

"You make good pitches and you pitch in the corners in the zone, that's what's it's all about," he said.

Matt Barnes tossed a perfect eighth before Craig Kimbrel struck out the side for his 15th save in 16 chances, finishing Boston's eighth win in 10 games. Kimbrel also saved Tuesday's 13-7 victory, throwing 27 pitches while pitching 1 1/3 innings.

Tim Anderson and Avisail Garcia had two hits apiece for the White Sox, who closed out a 4-3 homestand. Anderson doubled home Garcia in the second.

Wednesday, May 31 Scoreboard

Arizona 6, Pittsburgh 5 (F/14)

Toronto 5, Cincinnati 4

Houston 17, Minnesota 6

Miami 10, Philadelphia 2

San Diego 2, Chicago Cubs 1

Oakland 3, Cleveland 1

Baltimore 10, New York Yankees 4

Milwaukee 7, New York Mets 1

Tampa Bay 7, Texas 5 (F/10)

Boston 4, Chicago White Sox 1

St. Louis 2, Los Angeles Dodgers 1

Detroit 6, Kansas city 5

Los Angeles Angels 2, Atlanta 1

Seattle 5, Colorado 0

Washington 3, San Francisco 1

Thursday, June 1 Schedule (All Times Central)

Oakland at Cleveland, 11:10 a.m.

Milwaukee at New York Mets, 12:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis, 12:45 p.m.

Colorado at Seattle, 2:40 p.m.

Boston at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

New York Yankees at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Arizona at Miami, 6;10 p.m.

Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels, 9:07 p.m.

Friday, June 2  Schedule (All Times Central)

St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 1:20 p.m.

Boston at Baltimore, 6:05 p.m.

San Francisco at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

New York Yankees at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Chicago White sox at Detroit, 6:10 p.m.

Atlanta at Cincinnati, 6:10 p.m.

Pittsburge at New York Mets, 6:10 p.m.

Arizona at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

Houston at Texas, 7:05 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 7:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 7:15 p.m.

Washington at Oakland, 9:05 p.m.

Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels, 9:07 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

Colorado at San Diego, 9:10 p.m.

Saturday, June 3 Schedule (All Times Central)

New York Yankees at Toronto, 12:07 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 1:15 p.m.

St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 1:20 p.m.

Washington at Oakland, 3:05 p.m.

San Francisco at Philadelphia, 3:05 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Detroit, 3:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 3:10 p.m.

Atlanta at Cincinnati, 3:10 p.m.

Colorado at San Diego, 3:10 p.m.

Arizona at Miami, 3:10 p.m.

Boston at Baltimore, 6:15 p.m.

Houston at  Texas, 6:15 p.m.

Pittsburgh at New York Yankees, 6:15 p.m.

Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels, 9:07 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Seattle, 9:10 p.m.

Sunday, June 4 Schedule (All Times Central)

New York Yankees at Toronto, 12:07 p.m.

Chicago White Sox at Detroit, 12:10 p.m.

Atlanta at Cincinnati, 12:10 p.m.

Pittsburgh at New York Mets, 12:10 p.m.

Arizona at Miami, 12:10 p.m.

Boston at Baltimore, 12:35 p.m.

San Francisco at Philadelphia, 12:35 p.m.

Los Angeles Dodgers at Milwaukee, 1:10 p.m.

Cleveland at Kansas City, 1:15 p.m.

Houston at Texas, 2:05 p.m.

Minnesota at Los Angeles Angels, 2:37 p.m.

Washington at Oakland, 3:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Seattle, 3:10 p.m.

Colorado at San Diego, 3:40 p.m.

St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 6:30 p.m.