The St. Louis Cardinals will try to avoid their first five-game losing streak of the season when they finish a six-game road trip with a matchup against the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon in Anaheim, Calif.
St. Louis opened the trip with a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday but have lost four straight games since, the fifth time this season the Cardinals have lost four in a row.
Right-hander Hunter Dobbins (1-1, 4.03 ERA) will make his fourth start of the season for St. Louis and will oppose left-hander Reid Detmers (3-6, 4.16).
Dobbins is 0-0 with a 1.80 ERA in one career appearance against Los Angeles. That came last season as a member of the Boston Red Sox when he allowed one run on four hits and struck out four in five innings of relief in a 7-6 loss in Fenway Park.
Dobbins’ most recent start came on July 7 as the 27th man in the second game of a doubleheader at Milwaukee. He allowed three runs on four hits in five innings with three walks and four strikeouts in a 10-2 loss to the Brewers.
Los Angeles can match a season-high four-game winning streak with a victory on Wednesday.
Detmers has made 10 starts this season at Angel Stadium but is 0-4 there. Het threw six shutout innings on Friday against Detroit, allowing just four hits while striking out seven. The Tigers rallied to win 2-1 on a two-run double by Hao-Yu Lee off closer Kirby Yates with two outs in the ninth.
Detmers is 0-0 with a 5.14 ERA in three career appearances (one start) against the Cardinals.
Jo Adell hit a two-run home run to highlight a five-run first inning on Tuesday, and Walbert Urena allowed one run on six hits over six innings to lead the Angels to a 5-1 series-clinching victory.
It was the second straight game in which Adell homered. He also was credited with a game-winning RBI in a 3-2 walk-off victory in the series opener on Monday when Cards closer Riley O’Brien hit him with a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.
The first six batters reached base in a five-run first inning Tuesday for the Angels against St. Louis starter Matthew Liberatore. Jorge Soler had a two-run double, Vaughn Grissom had an RBI single, and Adell capped the inning with his 15th home run, a 405-foot blast into the bullpen in left.
“From the start of the game, we did our job collectively as a group,” Adell said. “Everybody was pitching in and just waiting on pitches that they could handle.”
Liberatore, vulnerable to the big inning during season, settled down after that and didn’t allow another run while completing 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out seven.
Liberatore said the game summed up the season for the Cardinals, who fell a half-game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates and Arizona Diamondbacks in the battle for the final National League wild-card spot.
“That’s kind of been the story of our whole season,” Liberatore said. “We’ve had our fair share of getting kicked and knocked down. We haven’t hesitated to get right back up and punch right back.”
Following Wednesday’s game, St. Louis will fly home for an eight-game homestand starting with a makeup game on Thursday against the Diamondbacks.
The Angels will make a quick weekend trip to San Francisco for three games with the Giants beginning Friday, and then launch another homestand on Monday with a game against the Houston Astros.
–Field Level Media
