LOS ANGELES _ After the St. Louis Cardinals had managed one run and lost in the 13th inning of Tuesday's game, that night's starter, Lance Lynn, outlined the obvious way for a starter to come away from that game with a victory.
He shouldn't have allowed a single run.
Mike Leake took note.
The Cardinals' ascendant sinkerballer faced the minimum through four innings, held the Los Angeles Dodgers to two hits through six and did not allow a run until the Cardinals had already pulled away for a six-run lead. That meant all of the help that the Los Angeles pitchers gave the Cardinals' offense was just gravy in a 6-1 victory Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. Kolten Wong started the scoring with a two-run single and Yadier Molina capped it with a solo home run to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. The rest was mostly Leake. Just like this season.
"He's on a roll where it looks like it is just something he can repeat for the whole season," manager Mike Matheny said before the win. "I think his stuff is just better."
Leake's quality start Wednesday was his ninth of the season in nine starts, and that broke a tie for the longest streak of quality starts in his career. The righthander has been jockeying with L.A. lefty Clayton Kershaw for the NL ERA lead, and the Cardinals' one run against Kershaw in the loss Tuesday left him with a 2.01 ERA. Leake dropped his down to 1.91.
Removed for the ninth, Leake came an inning shy of his first complete game since 2015 _ his first ever with the Cardinals _ but still punctuated a dominant turn by the Cardinals' rotation and continued one of the most overwhelming stretches by a pitching staff so far this season in the majors. In the past five starts, each by one of the starters, the Cardinals have allowed just three earned runs in 37 1/3 innings (0.72 ERA). They've allowed seven runs in their past 50 1/3 innings for a 1.25 ERA, and in their past 16 games they've allowed a total of 67 hits in 104 1/3 innings. That's 5.78 hits per nine innings pitched. For comparison, Kershaw allowed 6.31 hits per nine innings in 2014 when he won the Cy Young and MVP awards.
When the Cardinals signed Leake (5-2) to an $80 million contract before the 2016 season, they planned on getting a quality-start monster who could keep his infielders hopping as one of the most groundball-greedy starters in the game. What they got was a pitcher who had to adjust his approach because of the stumbles behind him and increase his strikeouts.
This season he's a fusion.
As he worked his way through the Dodgers' lineup the first and second time, he had at least one strikeout in every inning. He had at least one groundout in every inning. When Cody Bellinger singled to lead off the second inning, Leake coolly got a ground ball from Adrian Gonzalez to spin a double play and empty the bases. He struck out Chris Taylor to end the inning and did it with an 89 mph cutter.
"Movement on the sinker, movement on the cutter," Matheny listed. "On both sides of the plate. That's hard to put a good at-bat against. ... I think last year what we ran into was a lot of trouble with the big inning, where he wasn't able to repeat that sort of thing. That will put you in a bind that you can't get out of."
Ask his opposite Wednesday, lefty Rich Hill (1-2).
He invited the binds, then couldn't get out of them.
If Kershaw did all he could to quiet the Cardinals' lineup with his 10-strikeout start Tuesday night, Hill did the opposite by goosing the Cardinals' lineup with as many walks as they could desire.
By the time the Cardinals chased the lefty from the game in the fifth inning, Hill had walked seven of the 19 batters he faced. He allowed 11 of them to reach base. In the second inning, Hill walked leadoff hitter Jedd Gyorko and then walked two more Cardinals to load the bases before No. 8 hitter Kolten Wong came to the plate. With nowhere to put Wong ahead of the pitcher Leake, Hill left a strike over the plate and Wong laced it to left-center field for a two-run single and the game's first runs.
In 2010, Hill came to the Cardinals as a free agent and, while at Class AAA, elected to extend his contract by 30 days with the club in May because he was intrigued by a new role: reliever. An 11-game winner for the Chicago Cubs in 2007, Hill was trying to reinvent himself that spring training and then push his way back to the majors through Triple-A Memphis. In his first 10 appearances with the Cardinals' minor-league affiliate, Hill was 2-1 with a 3.21 ERA. He would make 13 more appearances in Memphis, never reach the Cardinals, and effectively slip out of sight from the National League club until resurfacing to face them Wednesday.
It was his first innings against his former team since before Barack Obama was elected president, and certainly since Hill's renaissance. After a release as recently as 2016, Hill continued to reinvent himself around his curveball. He shifted where he stood on the rubber.
He signed a three-year, $48 million deal with L.A. this winter.
At 36.
Back from a seven-day rest, Hill worked quickly through the first inning with three outs, including two meek groundouts. With two outs, Cardinals No. 3 hitter Matt Carpenter attempted a bunt against the Dodgers' shift. He was not successful. But he was hinting. Carpenter told reporters during spring that if opponents were willing to shift the infielders over to the right side, he was going to take the free hit every time with a bunt to the left. He had that chance at least once Tuesday night and didn't take it. That changed Wednesday.
Carpenter did not a get a crack at Hill during the rush in the second inning, but in the fifth inning he helped chase Hill from the game. Hill's seventh and final walk of his start put Stephen Piscotty on base ahead of Carpenter. The Dodgers shifted all the same, and Carpenter did as he promised _ he took the free hit. His bunt moved Piscotty into scoring position and gave the Cardinals two quick runners with no outs against the teetering Hill. Gyorko pushed him over.
The Cardinals' cleanup hitter jabbed a single to left field that had Piscotty stopping at third and Carpenter strolling to second. And then the ball slipped by left fielder Cody Bellinger.
Gyorko ended up on third and the Cardinals had a 4-0 lead on the error.
That was Hill's final pitch, but not the final run he allowed. Gyorko scored on a sacrifice fly to push the Cardinals to a 5-0 lead and complete the lefty's line.
