St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Angels

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
STL	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	3	0
LAA	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	7	0

Hunter Dobbins and Reid Detmers turned this into a pitcher's duel from the jump, and neither one deserved to lose. Dobbins worked 6 scoreless innings on 6 hits with 5 strikeouts and zero walks, the kind of start St. Louis has been starving for during this stretch. Detmers matched him for most of the night, striking out 6 over 5.1 innings and allowing just 1 earned run — his second straight quality outing after a scoreless 6-inning effort against Detroit on July 17.

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FINAL

Spread

ML

Total

Cardinals(51-49)

LLLLW

1

+1.5-156+123o9.5+138

Angels(41-61)

WWWLL

0

-1.5+150-133u9.5-144

Best BetCardinals +100

Postgame

Cardinals won outright 1-0 behind Dobbins' 6 scoreless innings, exactly the bull case.

Pregame

We backed the Cardinals at +129 and it cashed clean behind a shutout-caliber Dobbins start. St. Louis is still the better overall club by record even with the recent skid, and this was a case of the roster talent showing up when it mattered.

The only run of the game came in the 6th, when Jordan Wetherholt turned on a fastball and sent it 409 feet to center for a solo homer. That was it. That was the whole game. The Angels put 7 hits on the board and stranded every single one of them, and St. Louis' bullpen trio of Gastelum, Soriano and O'Brien slammed the door with 3 scoreless innings to close it out.

Hunter Dobbins

(2-2)·3.60 ERA

Jul 7 vs Brewers

L

5.0IP

3ER

4K

3BB

92P

07/22 Lineup

Reid Detmers

(3-7)·4.03 ERA

Jul 17 vs Tigers

ND

6.0IP

0ER

7K

0BB

86P

07/22 Lineup

It's a much-needed exhale for a Cardinals club that had been in freefall. St. Louis blew a 7-0 lead in a 10-inning loss to Arizona last Sunday — the first time the franchise had coughed up a lead that big since 2010 — and dropped 4 in a row before this series even started, then lost the first two games in Anaheim to boot. A win over baseball's worst team isn't exactly a signature statement, but Oliver Marmol's group needed literally anything to stop the bleeding.

For the Angels, this one stings in the way close losses to bad opponents always do. Detmers pitched well enough to win and got nothing to show for it, and a lineup that had scored 5 runs the night before went cold at the worst time. LA is still buried at 41-61, but they'd actually won 3 of their last 5 walking in, including the first two games of this very series, so the finale loss snaps a little momentum they'd built.

St. Louis Cardinals

(51-49)

Jul 22L@ Angels1-5

Jul 21L@ Angels2-3

Jul 19L@ Diamondbacks7-8

Jul 18L@ Diamondbacks3-5

Jul 18W@ Diamondbacks5-4

Los Angeles Angels

(41-61)

Jul 22Wvs Cardinals5-1

Jul 21Wvs Cardinals3-2

Jul 19Wvs Tigers3-2

Jul 19Lvs Tigers0-7

Jul 18Lvs Tigers1-2

St. Louis Cardinals

(4)

• Day-To-DayPedro Pages (C) — Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol indicated Pages will see a downturn in playing time following the promotion of Jimmy Crooks, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports.07/22
• 15-Day-ILJoJo Romero (RP) — The Cardinals do not expect Romero (appendicitis) to be ready for activation from the 15-day injured list when first eligible, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.07/19
• 60-Day-ILMax Rajcic (RP) — The Cardinals transferred Rajcic (elbow) to the 60-day injured list Tuesday.07/07
• 60-Day-ILRamon Urias (3B) — Urias (elbow) returned to St. Louis to undergo an examination on his left elbow, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat reports.06/12

Los Angeles Angels

(9)

• 10-Day-ILAdam Frazier (2B) — Frazier (elbow) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake on Sunday, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.07/20
• 10-Day-ILSebastian Rivero (C) — Rivero (hand) has been catching at the Angels' spring complex in Arizona, MLB.com reports.07/12
• 60-Day-ILYusei Kikuchi (SP) — Kikuchi (shoulder) is expected to throw another live session this weekend, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com reports.07/22
• 60-Day-ILTravis d'Arnaud (C) — D'Arnaud (foot) will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Salt Lake on Friday.07/17
• 60-Day-ILBen Joyce (RP) — Joyce (shoulder) averaged 100.2 mph with his fastball in a one-inning rehab appearance in the Arizona Complex League on Thursday, Taylor Blake Ward of TheSportingTribune.com reports.07/17
• 60-Day-ILJack Kochanowicz (SP) — Kochanowicz's Tommy John surgery on his right elbow was deemed "successful," per MLB.com.06/27
• 60-Day-ILYoan Moncada (3B) — Moncada will require surgery on his right knee, Francys Romero of BeisbolFR.com reports.06/09
• 60-Day-ILRobert Stephenson (RP) — The Angels announced that Stephenson underwent ligament and flexor repair surgery on his right elbow Wednesday and is likely to miss the remainder of the season, Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com reports.05/08
• 60-Day-ILAnthony Rendon (3B) — The Angels placed Rendon (hip) on the 60-day injured list Tuesday.05/08

Both rosters are banged up in ways that matter for the stretch run. The Cardinals are without JoJo Romero for a while longer after appendicitis, and Pedro Pages is about to see his playing time shrink now that Jimmy Crooks has been called up. The Angels' injury list is the longer story — Yusei Kikuchi, Travis d'Arnaud, Ben Joyce, Anthony Rendon and Yoan Moncada are all out for extended stretches, which explains a lot about why a team with real arms in the rotation keeps finding ways to lose low-scoring games like this one.