Dodgers Poor Offense Leads to Cardinals Taking Series in Extras

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a night to forget in their series opener on Tuesday against the St. Louis Cardinals, which kicked off their nine-game homestand. 

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And if anything came out of that loss, it was that the Dodgers' offense had finally started to pick themselves up, even in an ugly defeat. On Wednesday, Los Angeles erased that hope of sparking the offense, going 1-for-18 with runners in scoring position and dropping the series in an 8-6 extra-innings loss. 

Los Angeles put the pressure early, putting up a three-spot in their home half of the first courtesy of a Freddie Freeman three-run shot following back-to-back walks from Shohei Ohtani and Tommy Edman. 

That long ball was a huge sigh of relief for Freeman, as it snapped his 47 consecutive game streak without a home run, the longest such streak of his prestigious career. 

Sep 2, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers first base Freddie Freeman (5) hits a three run home run during the first inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

On the flip side, Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto was cruising against the Cardinals in his 25th start of the year. 

Five scoreless innings later, St.Louis had found themselves without a hit, but José Fermín broke Yamamoto's stride with a leadoff single in the sixth inning. That broke the dam wide open for the Cardinals' offense to emerge. 

Cardinals shortstop Thomas Saggesse has had himself a series thus far and only put more exclamation points with his two-run shot that cut the Dodgers' deficit by one. 

That was his third home run in the span of 24 hours. 

Mookie Betts, who has been the most consistent Dodgers bat in the midst of the offensive struggles, responded to Saggesse's two-run shot with one of his own for his 17th of the year. 

Sep 2, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts (50) hits 2 run home run during the sixth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Yamamoto would be out by the eighth after seven innings and giving up four earned runs. Dave Roberts would hand the responsibility of the eighth to Tanner Scott to face a pair of Cardinals lefties. 

St.Louis punched back by tying the game with back-to-back innings of offense via Leo Bernal's first career home run and an eight-inning sacrifice fly from Alec Burleson off Scott. 

Thanks to go-ahead RBI's from Saggesse and Joshua Báez in the 10th inning, it sealed the deal for Los Angeles. 

With the loss, the Dodgers drop to 82-57 and are 2-6 in their last eight games. Tarik Skubal will toe the slab on Thursday, hoping to avoid the sweep before trudging on with their homestand with a three-game set against the Washington Nationals. 

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