LOS ANGELES (AP) — Pinch-hitter Justin Turner delivered an RBI single in the eighth inning off Adam Wainwright, and the Los Angeles Dodgers edged the St. Louis Cardinals 1-0 Thursday night in their first meeting since last year’s NL championship series.
Josh Beckett pitched seven sharp innings in a tight duel with Wainwright, who held the Dodgers hitless through five. Left fielder Matt Kemp threw out a Cardinals runner at the plate in the seventh.
Juan Uribe, just off the disabled list after missing 34 games with a right hamstring strain, led off the eighth with a single and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Drew Butera before rookie Miguel Rojas’ infield single put runners at the corners.
Turner, batting for reliever Brian Wilson, came through with his 20th RBI of the season.
Wilson (1-2) pitched a perfect inning and Kenley Jansen got three outs for his 24th save.
Wainwright (10-4) took a hard-luck loss. He gave up five hits while going the distance for the 19th time in 201 regular-season starts. The right-hander was runner-up to Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw in last year’s NL Cy Young Award voting.
Beckett scattered four hits, walked two and struck out four. The right-hander has a 1.34 ERA over his last seven starts, a stretch that began with his no-hitter in Philadelphia on May 25. His season ERA is 2.11 in 15 starts.
Wainwright walked his first batter, Dee Gordon, then retired 15 in a row before Rojas led off the sixth with a clean single to left field. Beckett followed with a Texas Leaguer to right, and Allen Craig made a diving catch with the outfield playing shallow against the pitcher.
Gordon followed with a bloop single to left, but Yasiel Puig grounded into a double play started by third baseman Matt Carpenter. Puig, the NL player of the month for May, is batting .242 with no homers, six RBIs and 25 strikeouts in 25 games since his last home run on May 28 against Cincinnati’s Homer Bailey at Dodger Stadium.
Craig hit a two-out double in the seventh, just beyond Puig’s reach on the right-field warning track, then tried to score on Jon Jay’s sharp single to left. Kemp charged the ball and threw a perfect strike to Butera in front of the plate for a sweep tag as Beckett thrust both arms over his head in jubilation.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny challenged the call by umpire Vic Carapazza, but a replay review upheld the decision and the game remained scoreless.
The Cardinals won 97 games last season, five more than Los Angeles, and beat the Dodgers in the NLCS. Wainwright won Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.
— Associated Press —