Bernal Gets First MLB Hit as Cardinals Outslug Dodgers, 13-8

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Bernal Gets First MLB Hit as Cardinals Outslug Dodgers, 13-8
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

Leo Bernal will remember this one.

So will the St. Louis Cardinals.

On a night that began with Bernal making his major-league debut at Dodger Stadium, the Cardinals gave their rookie catcher plenty of support. St. Louis hit five home runs, built a big early lead and held off a late Los Angeles push to beat the Dodgers, 13-8, Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.

Bernal’s first big-league hit came in the third inning, and it was not a quiet one.

With the bases loaded and the Cardinals already leading, Bernal lined a two-run single into left-center field, scoring Jordan Walker and Iván Herrera. The ball came off his bat at 107.6 mph, a firm introduction for the 22-year-old catcher who had just been promoted from Triple-A Memphis as rosters expanded.

That swing pushed the Cardinals’ lead to 5-0.

It also gave Bernal a moment he will never forget.

The Cardinals did plenty around him.

Ramón Urías homered. Thomas Saggese homered twice. Walker launched a two-run shot. Joshua Báez added a solo homer. Herrera had two hits and drove in a run. Nathan Church added an RBI single. José Fermín contributed a sacrifice fly.

It was one of the Cardinals’ loudest offensive nights of the season, and it came in a ballpark where they needed something positive to open September.

St. Louis had dropped the final two games of its weekend series against Pittsburgh and entered this road trip still trying to stay relevant in the National League Wild Card picture. The Cardinals have spent too much of the season hovering just below the line, trying to find consistency before the schedule runs out.

Tuesday night did not fix all of that.

But it helped.

The Cardinals jumped on Dodgers starter Eric Lauer in the second inning. Urías opened the scoring with a solo home run to left field, giving St. Louis a 1-0 lead. Moments later, Saggese followed with a solo homer of his own to center field.

Just like that, the Cardinals had a 2-0 lead.

The third inning turned the game into something much bigger.

José Fermín reached and scored when Herrera singled to center, making it 3-0. Walker and Herrera were aboard when Bernal stepped in and delivered the swing of the night, lining his first MLB hit into left-center for two runs.

It was the kind of at-bat the Cardinals hoped they would someday see from Bernal.

They just got it on his first night.

The inning kept going. Joshua Báez moved to third on Bernal’s single and scored on Saggese’s sacrifice fly. Church then reached on an infield single to second, bringing Bernal home and extending the lead to 7-0.

The Cardinals had scored five runs in the inning.

They had knocked Lauer around.

They had Bernal standing in the middle of a big-league game with his first hit, his first two RBIs and his first run scored.

That is a pretty good first night at work.

Of course, against the Dodgers, nothing comes easy for long.

Los Angeles answered in the bottom of the third. Michael McGreevy had the benefit of a seven-run lead, but the Dodgers put traffic on the bases and Mookie Betts did what stars do. Betts drove a bases-clearing double to right, trimming the Cardinals’ lead to 7-3 and reminding everyone that even a big lead at Dodger Stadium does not always feel safe.

The Cardinals answered right back.

In the fourth, Herrera singled and Walker followed with a two-run home run to center field, his 28th of the season. The swing pushed the lead to 9-3 and moved Walker to 99 RBIs on the year.

That is a number worth pausing on.

For all the conversation around Walker’s season, the production has continued to matter. He has been one of the Cardinals’ most dangerous bats, and Tuesday night was another example. Two hits. Two runs. Two RBIs. Another home run.

The Cardinals needed the power.

Walker supplied it.

Saggese supplied even more.

After homering in the second and lifting a sacrifice fly in the third, Saggese went deep again in the fifth, driving a solo home run to right-center field. It was his second homer of the game and third of the season, giving him three RBIs on the night and pushing the Cardinals’ lead to 10-3.

That was the kind of night it became for St. Louis.

Urías started it.

Saggese doubled down on it.

Walker added to it.

Báez joined it.

And Bernal made it memorable.

The Dodgers got a run back in the bottom of the fifth on Betts’ second RBI double of the night, cutting the lead to 10-4. Betts drove in four runs and was the biggest reason Los Angeles stayed within reach as long as it did.

McGreevy was not dominant, but he gave the Cardinals enough with the lead they built. He worked five innings, allowing four runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out four.

That line will not turn many heads by itself.

But in a game like this, with the offense setting the tone early, McGreevy’s job was to keep the game from getting away. He did that. He took the ball into the fifth, limited the damage after the Dodgers’ three-run third and handed the bullpen a lead.

The Cardinals kept adding.

Joshua Báez hit a solo home run to center field in the seventh, his sixth of the season, stretching the lead to 11-4. Báez has had the kind of early big-league experience that comes with loud power and some swing-and-miss, but the power is real. When he connects, the ball does not come off softly.

That was true again Tuesday.

The Dodgers answered with a run in the bottom of the seventh on Will Smith’s double, scoring Shohei Ohtani and cutting the lead to 11-5.

Then the Cardinals added two more in the eighth.

Saggese scored on a wild pitch, and Church later scored on Fermín’s sacrifice fly to left, pushing the lead to 13-5. Those two runs looked like extra padding at the time.

By the end of the ninth, they mattered.

The Dodgers made the final score look a lot closer with a five-run ninth inning, taking advantage of one final rally to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 13-8. That kept the Cardinals from enjoying a quiet finish, but it did not erase the work they had done through the first eight innings.

St. Louis had built enough of a lead to survive it.

That was important.

Against a Dodgers lineup with Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Betts, Max Muncy, Will Smith and Kyle Tucker, games at Dodger Stadium rarely feel finished until the final out. The Cardinals had to keep scoring, and they did.

The final score reflected both sides of the night.

The Cardinals’ offense was excellent.

The finish was not as clean as it should have been.

Still, the win matters.

St. Louis finished with 13 runs on 13 hits. The Cardinals got home runs from five swings and contributions from nearly every part of the lineup. Saggese had two homers and three RBIs. Walker homered and drove in two. Bernal had the two-run single in his debut. Herrera had two hits and an RBI. Báez homered. Urías homered. Church drove in a run. Fermín added the sacrifice fly.

That is a full lineup win.

It was also a night for the young players.

Bernal made his debut and delivered his first hit. Walker continued building toward a 100-RBI season. Báez added another home run. Saggese had one of the best nights of his young career. Church added another useful at-bat.

That does not solve the season.

It does show why September still matters for this club.

The Cardinals are trying to balance two things at once. They are still trying to win games, still trying to hang around the Wild Card race, still trying to make the final month mean something. At the same time, they are evaluating young players who are going to shape the next version of this roster.

Tuesday night brought both sides together.

The kids produced.

The Cardinals won.

That is the combination the organization has been trying to find.

Bernal’s night will be the one many remember, and it should be. Catchers do not often get a chance to make their debut at Dodger Stadium, hit in the middle of a five-run inning and drive in two runs with their first big-league hit.

Bernal did and that is a special moment.

But the larger story was the offense as a whole. The Cardinals did not tiptoe through the game. They attacked Lauer early, forced the Dodgers to dig into the bullpen and kept adding enough runs to stay clear of Los Angeles’ late push.

For a team that has too often gone quiet after scoring early, that was encouraging.

The Cardinals scored twice in the second.

They scored five in the third.

They scored two in the fourth.

They scored again in the fifth.

They scored again in the seventh.

They scored twice more in the eighth.

That is how a team wins at Dodger Stadium.

Not by hoping one inning holds up.

By continuing to apply pressure.

The Dodgers made it uncomfortable late, but the Cardinals had already done the necessary work. They opened the series with a win over one of the best teams in the National League and did it with a lineup that looked alive from top to bottom.

That is worth something.

September is here. The margin is thin. The Cardinals still have ground to make up and plenty of questions to answer.

But Tuesday night was a good start to the road trip.

A rookie catcher got his first big-league hit.

The offense hit five home runs.

Walker moved closer to 100 RBIs.

Saggese had a two-homer night.

Báez added another glimpse of his power.

And the Cardinals walked out of Dodger Stadium with a 13-8 win.

For one night, the future did not have to wait.

It helped win a game in Los Angeles.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Leo Bernal, St. Louis Cardinals | MLB