Cardinals 13, Dodgers 8: Saggese Homers Twice in Los Angeles

Two solo shots in the second. The Dodgers never caught the inning.

September 1, 2026 – Los Angeles – Ramón Urías homered to left-center in the second, his fourth. Thomas Saggese followed him to center, his second. 2-0, visitors, and Eric Lauer was already in a game he would not finish clean.

The St. Louis Cardinals scored in six different innings and beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 13-8 at Dodger Stadium. Saggese homered twice. Jordan Walker added a two-run shot. Mookie Betts drove in four and still went home with an L.

Five in the third, then Walker and Saggese again

St. Louis piled five more in the third. José Fermín scored on an Iván Herrera single. Leonardo Bernal singled home Herrera and Walker. Saggese lifted a sacrifice fly. Nathan Church singled another run in. 7-0 before Los Angeles had a third-inning answer.

Betts doubled in the bottom half. Tommy Edman and Shohei Ohtani scored. 7-3. Lauer still left after three innings: eight hits, seven runs, two homers, one walk, two strikeouts.

Walker hit a two-run homer in the fourth, his 28th, scoring Herrera. Saggese's second homer, his third of the year, came in the fifth. Joshua Baez went deep in the seventh, his sixth. Fermín added a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Every St. Louis homer found a different part of the same problem: Lauer, then Seth Halvorsen, then Alex Vesia, then Justin Wrobleski.

Saggese finished 2-for-3 with a walk, three runs, two homers, and three RBI. Walker went 3-for-5 with a double and a homer. Herrera had two hits, two runs, and an RBI. Bernal drove in two.

Betts kept doubling. The ninth was too late.

Betts doubled twice, walked twice, and drove in four. Will Smith doubled Ohtani home in the seventh and later scored in the ninth. Edman had three hits. Kyle Tucker had a sacrifice fly. Enrique Hernández scored in the ninth.

The Dodgers scored three in the ninth against Cade Winquest. Forceout, sac fly, Edman single. 13-8. It looked like a rally on the board. It was not a comeback. St. Louis had already scored 13.

Michael McGreevy got the win: five innings, five hits, four runs, two walks, four strikeouts. Luis Gastelum threw a scoreless sixth. Ryan Fernandez cleaned up the seventh. Winquest's ninth was messy and did not change the decision.

Ohtani reached twice and scored twice. He did not homer. On a 13-8 night in Los Angeles, that is the line that tells you who owned the bats.

AthX Engine put Saggese first among hitters

AthX Engine scored Saggese at 15 hitting fantasy points, first on the full Tuesday slate. Walker had 9. Betts had 11 in a loss. St. Louis finished at 21 team fantasy points, second only to Minnesota's 31. Los Angeles finished at 2.

A two-homer night from a second baseman will print. Four RBI from Betts in an eight-run loss will print too. The board is not the standings.

What's next

St. Louis took a slugfest in the building that usually hosts the other kind. Saggese now has two homers in one West Coast night. The Dodgers have to live with Lauer's three-inning, seven-run line and a bullpen that kept leaking.

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*Sources: MLB Gameday, MLB schedule, AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*