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The Dodgers’ August woes followed them into the first day of September.
Roster expansion, returning three players from the injured list, the mental relief of turning the calendar page — none of that gave the Dodgers the boost they needed against the Cardinals on Tuesday.
Instead, the Dodgers lost 13-8 to a team that entered the day 4 ½ games out of the last National League wild-card spot.
“I just think tonight we just got behind the eight ball,” manager Dave Roberts said.
During the Dodgers’ past seven series (following a high-scoring trip to Chicago), their rotation has recorded a top-five ERA (2.97) in the majors. But on Tuesday, left-hander Eric Lauer coughed up seven runs in three innings.
It was a personal outlier as well in Lauer’s time with the Dodgers. Lauer had given up more than three runs in just two other outings since the Dodgers acquired him from the Blue Jays in mid-May, and Tuesday marked his shortest start.
“I felt good warming up, felt good in the bullpen, then got out there and kind of just lost it,” Lauer said. “And you know it’s one of those things where you try to make adjustments and you try to work on things between, and I think I might have been just tinkering a little too much in between and getting outside of myself. So I think really just focusing on what I do well and repeating that and not trying to get too fancy and getting back to the basics is really all I can do.”
The Dodgers had briefly moved Lauer from the rotation into the bullpen, but he reclaimed his starting role when right-hander Roki Sasaki landed on the IL last week with a blister on his right middle finger.
Lauer’s start Tuesday began to go downhill in the second inning when he gave up back-to-back solo homers to Ramón Urias and Thomas Saggese with two outs.
Those two runs could have been quickly forgotten if Lauer had gotten back on track. The next inning, however, he surrendered five runs as the Cardinals kept chipping away with five singles, a hit batter, a walk and a sacrifice fly.
The Dodgers struck back in the bottom half of the inning — but not exactly with authority.
With two extra active roster spots for the rest of the season, the Dodgers also activated left-hander Justin Wrobleski from the IL and recalled infielder Alex Freeland from triple A.
Mookie Betts’ bases-clearing double was assisted by a Cardinals defensive miscue. Right fielder Jordan Walker and second baseman José Fermín both raced after Betts’ shallow fly. As Fermín dashed back, Walker slid to attempt the catch — and took out Fermín’s feet from under him.
