Dobbins, Wetherholt Help Cardinals Salvage Finale in Anaheim

The Cardinal Chronicle
Dobbins, Wetherholt Help Cardinals Salvage Finale in Anaheim
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals needed a win.

They did not need style points.

After two frustrating losses to open the series in Anaheim, the Cardinals finally found a way to stop the slide Wednesday afternoon, beating the Los Angeles Angels, 1-0, at Angel Stadium.

It was not an offensive revival.

It was not a clean, comfortable afternoon.

It was not the kind of game that suddenly answers every question following a rough stretch out of the All-Star break.

But it was a win.

And after the way the first two games of the series went, that was enough.

JJ Wetherholt provided the only run of the day with a solo home run in the sixth inning. Hunter Dobbins, called upon for a spot start, gave the Cardinals six scoreless innings. Luis Gastelum, George Soriano and Riley O’Brien finished off the shutout, with O’Brien working through a tense ninth inning to secure the save.

The Cardinals avoided the sweep.

That matters.

It does not erase the walk-off hit-by-pitch loss Monday night. It does not erase Tuesday’s five-run first inning. It does not erase the concerns about an offense that produced only three hits Wednesday and continued to look far too quiet for long stretches.

But it kept the road trip from getting worse.

That matters too.

Dobbins was the story of the game.

The Cardinals needed someone to stabilize things, and the right-hander did exactly that. He worked six scoreless innings, allowing six hits, walking none and striking out five. He threw 86 pitches, 58 for strikes, and gave St. Louis the kind of calm, strike-throwing outing that had been missing far too often during this recent stretch.

This was not overpowering dominance.

It was execution.

Dobbins filled the zone, avoided free passes, worked through traffic and did not let the Angels turn singles into a big inning. That was the difference. Los Angeles had chances. The Angels had seven hits in the game. But Dobbins kept forcing them to earn everything, and when the inning called for a pitch, he made one.

The Cardinals had been burned by one bad inning Tuesday night. Matthew Liberatore gave up five in the first, and the game was essentially gone before St. Louis had a chance to settle in.

Dobbins made sure that did not happen Wednesday.

He gave the Cardinals a chance to play from even ground.

For a team struggling to score, that was important.

Reid Detmers matched him for most of the afternoon. The Angels left-hander gave Los Angeles 5 1/3 strong innings, allowing one run on two hits, walking two and striking out six. He had the Cardinals off balance early, and for the first five innings, St. Louis looked like a team still searching for the swing that could change the trip.

The Cardinals did not have much going.

Masyn Winn singled. Blaze Jordan singled. There were a couple of walks. But St. Louis never put together sustained pressure. The Cardinals were 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position and left only four men on base because, frankly, there was not enough traffic to leave many more.

That has been the problem.

The offense has had explosive games in recent weeks, but those nights have been followed too often by long stretches of silence. Wednesday afternoon was another reminder that the Cardinals are living on a thin offensive margin. One swing was enough this time, but that is a dangerous way to survive.

Fortunately for St. Louis, Wetherholt supplied that swing.

With one out in the sixth inning, Wetherholt got a pitch from Detmers and drove it out for a solo home run, giving the Cardinals a 1-0 lead. It was the only run of the game and the only real mistake Detmers made that St. Louis fully punished.

That is why Wetherholt continues to matter so much.

He can change a game from the top of the lineup. He can create a run without needing three hits behind him. On a day when the Cardinals’ offense was doing very little, he gave them the one swing they had to have.

It was not a long rally.

It was not a crooked number.

It was one rookie delivering one swing in a game where one run turned out to be enough.

That was the offense.

Everything else belonged to the pitching staff.

Dobbins cruised through the early innings without giving in. The Angels scattered hits, but never turned them into runs. Zach Neto doubled. Mike Trout singled. Wade Meckler had two hits. Josh Lowe had two hits. Oswald Peraza added another. There was contact, and there was pressure, but there was not damage.

That is where Dobbins earned the game.

He did not let the Angels stack mistakes. He did not walk hitters ahead of trouble. He did not give Los Angeles the free base that often turns a small rally into a game-changing inning. The Angels finished 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, and that number tells the story.

The Angels had chances.

The Cardinals made the pitches.

After Dobbins completed six scoreless innings, St. Louis turned the game over to the bullpen with no margin at all.

Luis Gastelum handled the seventh inning and continued to show why his Triple-A production deserved a look. He allowed one hit, struck out one and kept the shutout intact. For a bullpen that has been under heavy scrutiny, that was an important inning.

Gastelum was not asked to ease into the big-league picture in a soft spot.

He was handed a one-run game on the road.

He protected it.

George Soriano followed in the eighth and delivered another clean inning. He retired the Angels without allowing a hit and struck out one, giving the Cardinals exactly what they needed before handing the ball to O’Brien.

That brought the game to the ninth.

And because this is the Cardinals, it was not going to be easy.

O’Brien had already been at the center of Monday night’s painful walk-off loss, when the Angels won on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch. Two days later, he was back on the mound in Anaheim trying to close out a one-run game and prevent the Cardinals from being swept.

That is not an easy assignment.

It got tense.

O’Brien walked two and made the inning more uncomfortable than anyone in the Cardinals dugout wanted. But he also struck out the side, worked through the traffic and finished the shutout. It was not a stress-free save, but it was a save.

At that point, the Cardinals were not asking for pretty.

They were asking for the final out.

O’Brien got it.

For St. Louis, the win snapped a four-game losing streak and moved the Cardinals back to three games over .500. That is not where they wanted to be after the All-Star break, but it is better than heading home after being swept by an Angels club buried near the bottom of the American League West.

The series still stings.

It should.

The Cardinals had Monday night in their hands before the ninth inning collapsed. They never recovered from the first inning Tuesday. Even Wednesday, they needed a shutout to win a game in which they produced three hits.

That is not sustainable baseball.

But it is winning baseball for one afternoon.

Sometimes that is all a club can take.

The Cardinals finished with one run on three hits. Wetherholt homered and drove in the only run. Winn and Jordan had the other hits. Iván Herrera, Jordan Walker, Alec Burleson, Nelson Velázquez, José Fermín and Jimmy Crooks were held hitless. The lineup struck out 10 times.

That part cannot be ignored.

The Cardinals won, but the offensive questions remain. They scored three runs total over the final two games of the series. They had four hits Monday, seven hits Tuesday and three hits Wednesday. That is not enough production for a club trying to stay in the National League postseason race.

The pitching bailed them out in the finale.

Dobbins gave them the start.

Gastelum and Soriano gave them the bridge.

O’Brien survived the ninth.

Wetherholt gave them the swing.

That was enough to win 1-0.

But it also showed how thin the margin has become.

The Cardinals will now head home with a little bit of relief, but not a lot of comfort. They avoided the sweep. They stopped the losing streak. They got a strong spot start from Dobbins and a useful bullpen response. Those are positives.

Still, the bigger picture remains.

They need more offense.

They need more consistent starting pitching.

They need fewer games where one mistake feels like it might decide everything.

Wednesday afternoon was a good win because any road shutout is a good win. It was also a necessary win because the Cardinals could not afford to let this series end without some kind of response.

They got one.

It came from Dobbins.

It came from Wetherholt.

It came from a bullpen that held the line.

The Cardinals salvaged the finale, beat the Angels 1-0, and got out of Anaheim with at least one win.

After the first two games of the series, they will take it.

The Cardinal Chronicle, in association with Gateway Sports & MiLB Today
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Photo Credit: Hunter Dobbins, St. Louis Cardinals | Mark Terrell /AP