Dodgers 13, Cardinals 4
ST. LOUIS -- First, the Los Angeles Dodgers knocked Shelby Miller out. Then they knocked around his surprise replacement.
Battering Jake Westbrook for 13 hits and nine runs over 4 2/3 innings of unscheduled relief, the Dodgers got back in the win column with a 13-4 pasting of St. Louis Wednesday night at sold-out Busch Stadium.
Former Cardinal Skip Schumaker and Andre Ethier each drove in four runs for Los Angeles (63-50), which had a 15-game road winning streak snapped Tuesday night. It pounded out 18 hits in this one, including four from Carl Crawford.
Ricky Nolasco (8-9) staggered through five innings and 103 pitches to pick up the win, scattering seven hits and yielding three runs.
Crawford's first hit shaped the game's tone. It came on Miller's second and final pitch, caroming off his right elbow and into left field for a double.
Miller was helped off the mound in clear pain and diagnosed with a contusion, although X-rays came back negative. That was the only good news for the Cardinals (66-47), who fell three games behind Pittsburgh in the National League Central.
Westbrook (7-7), who was scheduled to start Thursday night's series finale, took the ball a day early out of necessity after Michael Blazek relieved Miller and worked out of a bases-loaded jam. But Westbrook ran into immediate trouble.
Jerry Hairston started a six-run second inning for Los Angeles by grounding a two-run single to left with the bases loaded. Adrian Gonzalez followed by lining an RBI single to right-center that made it 3-0.
After a Yasiel Puig walk re-filled the bases, Ethier's liner off the glove of Westbrook was turned into an out, but Hairston scored. Schumaker capped off the outburst by poking a two-run single to left.
The Dodgers tacked on another run in the fifth when Crawford laced a two-out single to right, scoring Tim Federowicz.
St. Louis picked up three unearned runs in its half of the fifth on two-out RBI singles by Matt Carpenter, Carlos Beltran and Matt Holliday. Los Angeles pitcher Ricky Nolasco's three-base throwing error on Daniel Descalso's tapper in front of the mound set the rally in motion.
NOTES: Los Angeles SS Hanley Ramirez (jammed right shoulder) didn't start for the third straight game and was replaced by Dee Gordon. Ramirez was injured going into the seats behind third base at Wrigley Field in the seventh inning Sunday ... St. Louis manager Mike Matheny scratched Allen Craig in order to give Matt Adams a start at first base against a righthander. The Dodgers will start LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu in Thursday night's series finale. ... Cardinals RHP Seth Maness induced his 12th double play ball Tuesday night, the most for a reliever on the team since Julian Tavarez got 14 back in 2005. Making Maness' number more remarkable is that he's only pitched 39 innings since being called up a month into the season.
