Zack Greinke has been dominant at home with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he hasn't won there in more than five weeks and he's certainly not to blame.
Perhaps a meeting with the St. Louis Cardinals will help.
Greinke has been outstanding against the Cardinals in three starts at Chavez Ravine since joining the Dodgers, a run of success he'll try to continue whil helping Los Angeles salvage a split of this series Sunday night.
Greinke (5-1, 1.97 ERA) is 21-5 with a 2.25 ERA in 38 home starts -- including two against St. Louis in the postseason -- since joining the Dodgers before the 2013 season. The right-hander has compiled a 1.35 ERA in his last four games there, but he lost his only decision since the offense has backed him with four total runs over that stretch.
The bats got Greinke off the hook for a loss at Colorado on Tuesday, when he surrendered season highs of five runs and 10 hits in six innings before Los Angeles (32-24) rallied for a 9-8 win.
Yasiel Puig came through with an RBI double in the seventh inning after missing 39 games with a strained left hamstring.
"We've really missed him in the lineup. You can survive two weeks, three weeks. But when you get into long term, that's when you really start getting into trouble," manager Don Mattingly told MLB's official website.
The right fielder is a .333 hitter in 11 career regular-season matchups with St. Louis, but he's 4 for 9 against Lance Lynn in meetings that include the postseason.
Despite Saturday's defeat, the Cardinals (37-19) have won 10 of their last 13 games thanks in large part to a 1.62 ERA and seven consecutive starts of at least seven innings.
One of those was a gem by Lynn (4-4, 3.03), who allowed five hits in 7 2/3 innings of a 1-0 win over Milwaukee on Tuesday -- his longest start of the season. The right-hander's success came through a array of fastballs as he matched his season high of 119 pitches.
"Really, he's finding a great feel for manipulating the fastball with cuts and sinks," manager Mike Matheny said. "Not many people can get away with what he's doing."
Lynn, though, has dropped two of his last three starts on the road with a 5.82 ERA. He was hammered for seven runs and nine hits in two innings while dealing with a blister in a 9-1 loss in his most recent regular-season appearance at Dodger Stadium on June 28.
He was better there opposite Greinke in the NL division series, yielding two runs with eight strikeouts in six innings. Lynn has never allowed a homer in 39 1/3 career innings against the Dodgers.
St. Louis may be without Matt Carpenter, who was hit by a pitch from Kershaw on the right triceps in the first inning Saturday. He played three more innings before exiting and was replaced at third by Pete Kozma, who was starting at second in place of Kolton Wong.
Kozma is 1 for 27 over his last 14 games, while Wong entered once Carpenter left Saturday and went 0 for 2 to snap a 10-game road hitting streak.
