Thomas Saggese hit a home run and drove in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning with an infield single as the St. Louis Cardinals rallied for an 8-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.
Leo Bernal added a homer, his first after making his major league debut on Tuesday, and the Cardinals (70-70) won for just the fourth time in their past 11 games.
St. Louis sent eight pitchers to the mound in a bullpen game. Former Dodger Justin Bruihl (1-1) pitched a scoreless ninth inning, and Riley O’Brien handled the 10th, yielding an unearned run, for his 35th save.
Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts homered as the Dodgers (82-57) lost for the sixth time in eight games. Yoshinobu Yamamoto took a no-hitter into the sixth, but he wound up allowing four runs on five hits in seven innings. He struck out eight and walked two.
Yamamoto has a 2.32 ERA in eight starts since the All-Star break.
Saggese’s go-ahead ground ball in the 10th against Brock Stewart (0-2) was followed by a two-run double from Joshua Baez.
Former Cardinal Tommy Edman knocked in a run with a groundout in the bottom of the 10th.
Five of the first six Dodgers batters reached base against Cardinals rookie left-hander Brycen Mautz in the first inning. Los Angeles took a 3-0 lead when Shohei Ohtani walked, Edman was hit by a pitch and Freeman lifted a three-run homer to left-center field with one out.
The blast ended Freeman’s career-high 47-game streak without a homer. He last went deep on July 4.
Yamamoto was cruising along with five perfect innings before Jose Fermin led off the sixth with a single to right. Saggese followed two batters later with a home run to center, his third long ball in the first two games of the three-game series.
Betts hit a two-run home run in the sixth for a 5-2 Dodgers lead.
The Cardinals pulled within 5-4 in the seventh when Bernal hit a two-run home run off Yamamoto. St. Louis tied it 5-5 in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Alec Burleson off left-hander Tanner Scott.
