Thomas Saggese leads 5-homer outburst in Cardinals' 13-8 win over Dodgers

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals hit five home runs, including a pair by Thomas Saggese and a two-run shot from Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker, in a 13-8 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night.

Ramón Urías and Joshua Báez also went deep for the Cardinals, who had lost seven of nine while getting outscored 63-38 during that span. But the bats broke loose in this one as St. Louis scored its most runs in a game at Dodger Stadium.

Los Angeles starter Eric Lauer (8-7) was tagged for seven early runs, five in the third inning.

Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy went a combined 1 for 7 with three strikeouts for the Dodgers. Mookie Betts had four RBIs.

Los Angeles dropped to 28-2 when scoring at least eight runs this season.

Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy (6-9) allowed four runs and five hits with four strikeouts in five innings.

The Cardinals loaded the bases twice in the third while extending their lead to 7-0. Iván Herrera had an RBI single, Leo Bernal delivered a two-run single in his major league debut and Saggese added a sacrifice fly. Nathan Church reached on an infield single to second, scoring Bernal.

The Cardinals led 2-0 on consecutive homers by Urías and Saggese with two outs in the second.

Walker's two-run drive off reliever Seth Halvorsen made it 9-3 in the fourth. Walker had just five homers in his previous 41 games since the All-Star break.

Saggese homered again with two outs in the fifth. Báez added a solo homer in the seventh for an 11-4 lead.

Dodges utilityman Kiké Hernández struck out as a pinch hitter in the seventh and then gave up a leadoff hit in pitching the ninth, the 148th position player to pitch in the majors this season.

Lauer gave up seven runs and eight hits in three innings.

The Cardinals will go with a bullpen game Wednesday against Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.56 ERA).

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