LOS ANGELES — Matt Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals won a slugfest no one saw coming.
Carpenter hit a go-ahead, three-run double off a wilting Clayton Kershaw in an eight-run seventh inning, and the Cardinals rallied for a 10-9 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in a fiery NL Division Series opener Friday.
“It makes it more fun when you’re playing against somebody that is known as being the best pitcher in the game,” Carpenter said. “When I get in those at-bats versus him I just try to fight. He’s coming right after me, seems like every time I face him I’m down 0-2 and I got to fight my way back.”
It was 92 degrees at gametime, and things quickly got more heated.
St. Louis overcame a five-run deficit against Kershaw and held on when Trevor Rosenthal blew a 100-mph fastball past Yasiel Puig with a runner on third to end a back-and-forth game that lasted nearly four hours.
“I’m sure everybody in baseball was expecting a one-run game,” Carpenter said. “We ended up getting one, but we didn’t think it would be 10-9.”
In a matchup of 20-game winners, Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright hit Puig with a pitch leading off the third, triggering a bench-clearing scrum. There was shoving and shouting, but no punches were thrown.
Wainwright succumbed first on the mound, allowing six runs and 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings. But Kershaw failed once again in the postseason.
The left-hander whose 1.77 ERA led the major leagues for the fourth consecutive year came in eager to erase the memory of his poor showing in Game 6 of last year’s NL Championship Series, when the Dodgers were eliminated by the Cardinals.
And Kershaw dominated through the first six innings, retiring 16 in a row between homers by Randal Grichuk and Carpenter.
But he collapsed in a shaky seventh, when he gave up five of the Cardinals’ eight runs and became the first pitcher in postseason history to allow seven runs in consecutive starts. He yielded that many in losing Game 6 last year.
“He gives up a hit or two and you always feel like he’s going to get out of it, he’s always going to rebound,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.
Kershaw, a heavy favorite to win a third Cy Young Award in four years, fell to 1-4 with a career 5.19 ERA in the postseason.
The Dodgers rallied again in the ninth, pulling to 10-9 after Dee Gordon’s RBI groundout scored A.J. Ellis, who singled. But Puig struck out swinging against Rosenthal, who reached 100 mph on five of the seven pitches in the at-bat.
Adrian Gonzalez pulled the Dodgers to 10-8 with a two-run homer in the eighth off Randy Choate. They had the potential tying run at the plate when pinch-hitter Justin Turner grounded to third to end the inning.
Giants 3, Nationals 2
WASHINGTON — Jake Peavy took a no-hitter into the fifth inning to outpitch playoff rookie Stephen Strasburg, and the San Francisco Giants won their ninth consecutive postseason game by beating the Washington Nationals 3-2 on Friday in an NL Division Series opener.
The intense Peavy won the 2007 Cy Young Award but never has been much of an October performer, going 0-3 with a 9.27 ERA in five previous starts. But maybe the Giants’ aura rubbed off on him, because the 33-year-old right-hander threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in Game 1, allowing only two hits.
“Nobody is scared of the moment,” said Peavy, who won the 2007 NL Cy Young Award with San Diego and last year’s World Series with Boston, but was 0-3 with a 9.27 ERA in five previous starts beyond the regular season. “We understand that we might not be, man for man, the favorites.”
Buster Posey, Joe Panik and Brandon Belt drove in San Francisco’s runs.
Game 2 is Saturday, with Washington’s Jordan Zimmermann — who threw a no-hitter in the regular-season finale — facing Tim Hudson.
Strasburg took the loss in his playoff debut; he was shut down in 2012 to protect his surgically repaired elbow. He showed up with his best material Friday, reaching 99 mph.
“He gave us a chance,” manager Matt Williams said. “Jake was a little bit better.”
The No. 1 overall draft pick in 2009 lasted five-plus innings, allowing eight hits — all singles, all to center or right field — and two runs, one earned. He tied for the NL lead this season with a career-high 242 strikeouts, but only managed two, in part because the Giants rarely missed.
“Wasn’t like they were hitting me all around the yard,” Strasburg said. “Hit it where we weren’t.”
By wire sources