Adams blasts Cardinals past Dodgers and into fourth straight NLCS
ST. LOUIS -- His head down, his body slumped, Dodgers lefthander Clayton Kershaw stared at the mound with his back to the plate.
Cardinals slugger Matt Adams, meanwhile, literally skipped around first base.
And those two images said it all Tuesday evening at Busch Stadium.
With a three-run, line-drive home run into the right-field bullpen, Adams and the Cardinals had defeated Kershaw.
Again.
And the Cardinals were on their way to the National League Championship Series.
Again.
The 3-2 victory in Game 4 of the NL Division Series put St. Louis in the NLCS for the fourth straight year, the first team to accomplish the feat since the Braves from 1995-99.
The decision over Kershaw was the Cardinals' fourth straight over the past two postseasons. In between, Kershaw went 21-3. But that meant little to him as he stared at the ground, the Dodgers' 2-0 lead gone just like that. Neither did it matter that he allowed only three baserunners in the first six innings while striking out nine. What mattered was that the first three he faced in the seventh had scored, and he would leave Busch Stadium a defeated man. Again.
3 UP
-- Seventh inning. Like they did in Game 1, the Cardinals broke through against Kershaw in the seventh. They didn't score eight runs this time, but they got enough to take the lead and leave Kershaw with his hands on his knees, his head down and his season almost over. In his two starts, Kershaw pitched 12 2/3 innings and gave up 10 runs -- eight of them in the seventh.
-- Shelby Miller. He made his first postseason start a solid one by working 5 2/3 innings and allowing two runs. Miller did not allow a Dodger to reach third until the sixth inning, when he seemed to be tiring. His fastball, which touched 97 mph in the first inning, was mostly around 93 in the sixth.
After leadoff singles by Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez put runners on first and third with no outs, Miller induced a ground ball from Matt Kemp that turned into a 6-4-3 double play and scored Crawford from third.
Miller's day would have been better if it ended there because he hit -- grazed -- Hanley Ramirez with a fastball and walked Andre Ethier after getting ahead 0-2 on both hitters. Miller exited after walking Ethier and ended up being charged with a second run when reliever Seth Maness gave up a line-drive single to Juan Uribe.
Watch the Missouri Lottery Cardinals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Midwest after every St. Louis Cardinals postseason game.
-- Marco Gonzales. The rookie left-hander pitched a scoreless seventh and picked up his second win of the series when the Cardinals rallied in the bottom of the inning. In his past seven innings covering five outings, Gonzales has not allowed a run and has given up only one hit. No wonder he has become Matheny's most trusted lefty.
3 DOWN
Are you kidding? Sorry, there's nothing down about advancing to the NLCS.
You can follow Stan McNeal on Twitter at @StanMcNeal or email him at stanmcneal@gmail.com.
