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ST. LOUIS(AP)
Adam Wainwright
and
Chad Billingsley
matched zeroes for five innings. Wainwright kept going long after the St. Louis Cardinals roughed up the 10-game winner.
Wainwright scattered eight hits in eight innings and the Cardinals scored six runs in the sixth inning of a 10-0 victory Tuesday
night that saddled the Dodgers with their first three-game losing streak of the season.
''My main focus was just to keep going and outlast him,'' Wainwright said. ''Our offense, we're kind of like the Rams when
they won the Super Bowl, that quick strike offense.
''Even though he was pitching a great game, I knew our offense would get to him,'' he said.
The Dodgers have the majors' best record at 62-38 and were the last team to lose three in a row, going a franchise-record
99 games before falling in their 100th game. That shattered the previous mark of 73 games in June 1965.
''We've won a lot of close games, but to go this long only losing two in a row is pretty unusual,'' manager
Joe Torre
said. ''But we have to get ourselves righted right now.''
Billingsley (10-6) had a one-hitter through five innings before falling apart in a game that was delayed 1 hour, 25 minutes
at the start due to the threat of heavy rain that never came. The Dodgers have managed one run on 20 hits the first two games
of a four-game series and are 2-10 at 4-year-old Busch Stadium.
''Everything was going well,'' Billingsley said. ''Just that sixth inning, I couldn't stop the bleeding.''
Ryan Ludwick
's bases-loaded single keyed the sixth-inning outburst and
Mark DeRosa
added a three-run homer in the eighth, his sixth in 14 games. The Cardinals' revamped lineup has scored 16 runs the last two
games without a contribution from
Albert Pujols
.
Pujols is 1 for 7 with three walks in the series and 10 for 42 (.238) since the All-Star break with two homers and two RBIs
- both in the first game back - and no other extra-base hits.
The three-game losing streak is Los Angeles' longest since they dropped eight in a row Aug. 22-29, 2008, and they were shut
out for the sixth time. Infielder
Mark Loretta
made his second career relief appearance, hitting
Matt Holliday
with a pitch before getting the last out of the eighth on Ludwick's flyout to the warning track in left.
Wainwright (12-6) scattered eight hits with five strikeouts and one walk, and hit his stride after stranding two runners in
the second, third and sixth. He worked six or more innings for the 20th consecutive start and seven or more for the eighth
time in nine outings, and retired the last eight hitters in order.
Wainwright was 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA in July and the latest victory exceeded his 2008 total, when he was sidelined for 65 games
with a finger tendon injury.
Ludwick, who had been the cleanup hitter before the Cardinals acquired Holliday last week, is 7 for 12 with 17 RBIs with the
bases loaded after grounding a solid single up the middle on a 1-1 pitch.
''I don't know if it was the key blow but it was a big hit,'' Ludwick said. ''I'm just trying to do my job.''
The Cardinals didn't get a hit until Holliday's single to left with two outs in the fourth and Billingsley (10-6) needed only
59 pitches to work five innings, before running into big trouble. Billingsley needed 35 pitches to get two more outs in the
sixth, giving up three hits, walking four and throwing two wild pitches.
Skip Schumaker
walked to start the inning and capped the rally with an RBI single that extended his hitting streak to 11 games. Billingsley
walked three others, including Holliday intentionally to load the bases before Ludwick's single for the game's first runs.
Yadier Molina
had a two-run single with two outs and Wainwright had an RBI single after
Brendan Ryan
was walked intentionally.
NOTES: Dodgers RHP
Jason Schmidt
(1-1, 7.88 ERA) threw a bullpen session Tuesday, but manager
Joe Torre
hasn't yet decided whether he'd stay in the rotation. ...
Andre Ethier
doubled in the third and is batting .500 (17 for 34) during a nine-game hitting streak. ... Holliday was 1 for 3 after becoming
the first Cardinal to double in his first four games, in statistics dating to 1954.
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