ST. LOUIS — The legend of Michael Wacha is only continuing to grow.
Maybe even better than flirting with no-hitters in successive starts is standing toe-to-toe with the baddest gunslinger in the West — and not only emerging intact, but victorious. That was the rookie Wacha on Saturday after firing 6 ²/₃ shutout innings that led the Cardinals to a 1-0 victory over Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS at Busch Stadium.
Only 17 hours after Carlos Beltran delivered a 13th-inning RBI single that sent the Cardinals to a 3-2 victory in Game 1, it was Wacha, a strong bullpen effort and just enough offense to get the job done and take a 2-0 series lead.
“Any time you’re going up against a guy like Kershaw, you don’t really expect even the best offenses to score a lot of runs off him,” Wacha said. “We were able to scratch across a run against a tough pitcher … it ended up being enough for us.”
Nobody had a worse day at the plate than rookie Yasiel Puig, who struck out four times. Juan Uribe, batting behind Puig, whiffed three times. The Dodgers, who have gone 19 innings without scoring a run, remain uncertain about the status of shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who was scratched from Saturday’s lineup with bruised ribs after Joe Kelly drilled him with a fastball a day earlier.
“We lost two here, and it’s not the end of the world,” Kershaw said. “But it’s definitely not a good thing.”
The series will resume on Monday in Los Angeles, with Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright set to face Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers will attempt to become only the second team to rebound from a 2-0 deficit since the NLCS went to a best-of-seven format in 1985.
Wacha allowed a single to Mark Ellis in the first inning, a departure from the script he had crafted in his previous two starts, in which he flirted with no-hitters. The most recent was Game 4 of the NLDS in Pittsburgh, where Pedro Alvarez’s solo homer in the eighth spoiled the no-hit bid.
On Saturday, the right-hander allowed five hits and struck out eight with one walk. Randy Choate, Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal then combined for three innings of hitless relief. Rosenthal struck out the side in the ninth for the save.
‘We’re all aggressive, want to be the guy in these situations and I think at times that can be a detriment,” Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis said.
Kershaw went six innings, allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts and one walk. The lefty threw only 72 pitches, but was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, following Nick Punto’s two-out single against Wacha.
Wacha’s best pitching came in the sixth, when he struck out Puig and Uribe in succession with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Kershaw singled leading off and Carl Crawford followed with an infield hit — Matt Carpenter tried to make a play at second and committed a throwing error, putting runners on second and third — before Adrian Gonzalez, with one out, was walked to load the bases.
Puig and Uribe both went down chasing low fastballs from Wacha.
“It comes down to a young pitcher being put on the big stage in high leverage and making big pitches,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.
The Cardinals scored the game’s only run in the fifth, when Jon Jay’s fly ball to medium left field was enough to get David Freese home from third. Freese doubled leading off the inning and went to third on Ellis’ passed ball. Crawford, who has a below-average throwing arm, never had a real shot to get Freese on Jay’s fly out.
“I knew it was going to be close,” Kershaw said. “It was just in that mediocre territory right there.”