In the first three games of the National League Championship Series, runs were hard to come by. The Dodgers and Cardinals combined for just nine runs in those three games with no team scoring more than three in any one.
Though there still weren’t a bunch in Game 4, they did come a little more quickly on Tuesday night.
Matt Holliday‘s two-run home run capped a three-run third inning and propelled St. Louis to a 4-2 win, giving them a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
Holliday’s homer, a towering blast measured at 426 feet, was the first for anyone in the NLCS, and was his first hit in the four games of the series. It came off of Ricky Nolasco, against whom he was 12-for-26 with two homers entering the game.
The home run came with two outs in the inning. Two batters earlier, Matt Carpenter doubled to left center, scoring Daniel Descalso.
That was essentially enough to knock Dodgers starter Ricky Nolasco from the game. Manager Don Mattingly pinch hit for him in the fourth inning.
It was Nolasco’s first career postseason start and came as he’s about to enter free agency. It didn’t go quite as he had hoped. He gave up three runs on three hits and a walk. He threw just 58 pitches and ended up taking the loss.
The excitable Yasiel Puig got the scoring started for the Dodgers in the bottom of the fourth. After Adrian Gonzalez‘s double and Andre Ethier‘s walk, Puig singled to center, making the score 3-1.
Two batters later, A.J. Ellis added a RBI-single to center field to score Ethier and make the score 3-2.
The Dodgers kept the deficit to one run, escaping a jam in the sixth. With one out, Yadier Molina walked and Jon Jay reached on catcher’s interference. Chris Withrow was able to get David Freese to ground into a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play, preserving the 3-2 score.
The Cardinals picked up an insurance run from an unlikely source in the top of the seventh. Shane Robinson, pinch-hitting for reliever Seth Maness, hit a change-up that bounced off the top of the left field fence and into the stands. Robinson had just two home runs this season and had hit only five in 221 career major league games.
The Dodgers looked like they were putting a threat together in the bottom half of the inning until they ran themselves out of it. Nick Punto doubled with one out, but got greedy in taking his lead off of second base and was quickly picked off by Carlos Martinez.
L.A. tried to put together one last rally in the bottom of the ninth. Ethier led off with a single to center off Trevor Rosenthal with Puig coming up. He ended up grounding in to a 4-3 double play, erasing the baserunner and essentially ending the threat. Juan Uribe would strike out to end the game.
Lance Lynn earned the win for St. Louis, fighting his way through 5.1 innings. He allowed six hits and three walks, but managed to limit the L.A. scoring to just two runs.
Now the Dodgers are in a literal must-win situation for the rest of the series. They’ll send Zack Greinke to the mound for Game 5. He pitched very well in Game 1, surrendering just two runs over eight innings. The Cardinals will counter with their Game 1 starter, Joe Kelly. He made it through six innings, also giving up two runs. First pitch is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
