ST. LOUIS – Chase Utley, Cody Bellinger and Logan Forsythe hit home runs as the Dodgers extended their winning streak to five games with a 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday afternoon.
Utley led off the third inning with his third home run in the past five games. He added a single later in the game. After a miserable start to his season – he was batting .098 just three weeks ago – Utley is 19 for 52 (.365) with 13 RBI in his past 18 games.
Bellinger’s home run came with two outs in the fourth and was his 11th of the season. Since making his big-league debut on April 25, Bellinger is tied with Angels outfielder Mike Trout for the most home runs in the majors. The 21-year-old Bellinger is one of only five players in the past 100 years to hit as many as 11 home runs in his first 32 big-league games – joining Jose Abreu, Dave Hostetler, Kevin Maas and Mike Jacobs.
Forsythe’s homer was his first as a Dodger but their seventh in the past two games, 11th during the winning streak and 34th in May.
Cardinals starter Mike Leake held the Dodgers to one run on four hits over eight innings in his start at Dodger Stadium last week. But they got to him for four runs this time around. In addition to the two solo home runs, Corey Seager had a two-out RBI single and Yasiel Puig a sacrifice fly to produce runs against Leake.
That was enough to back Rich Hill who was looking to get back on track after walking a career-high seven in his start against the Cardinals last week.
Hill retired the first 10 Cardinals in order before allowing a run without allowing a hit in the fourth inning. A walk, an error on a pickoff attempt, a hit batter, a double steal and a sacrifice fly did the trick for the Cardinals’ only run off Hill.
The Dodgers left-hander also ran into trouble in the fifth inning but avoided damage. Those two innings, however, ran Hill’s pitch count up to a season-high 86 and he was done after five innings.
The Dodgers’ bullpen took over from there. Pedro Baez, Sergio Romo, Chris Hatcher and Brandon Morrow each pitched a shutout inning in relief to seal the victory.
Dodgers relievers have not been charged with a run during the five-game winning streak and have allowed only six hits over their 19-2/3 scoreless innings in that time.
More to come on this story.