Cardinals could use a consistent force in the middle of the lineup

DENVER (AP) — Kenta Maeda felt something the veteran pitcher doesn’t always experience — a touch of nerves.Stepping into the shoes of All-Star closer Kenley Jansen happens to be stressful work. Even more so in the heat of a division chase.Clayton Kershaw threw six effective innings Tony Conigliaro Jersey , Maeda finished the ninth in place of Jansen and the Los Angeles Dodgers crept closer to the NL West-leading Colorado Rockies with a 4-2 win on Friday night. Yasiel Puig homered and had an RBI single for the Dodgers, who climbed within a half-game of the Rockies as they began a pivotal three-game series. This is the latest into the season the Rockies have been alone in first place since 1995.“We need to play like we’re in the playoffs right now and close to the World Series,” Puig said.Kershaw (7-5) baffled the Rockies even if he didn’t have his best stuff. The left-hander allowed two runs and six hits as he improved to 22-7 in 39 career starts against Colorado, with a 3.21 ERA.Scott Alexander got two outs in the eighth and began the ninth in place of Jansen, who didn’t make the trip after a team cardiologist recommended he not pitch at altitude after suffering an irregular heartbeat episode in Denver last month.Alexander gave up a long single to Chris Iannetta and struck out Charlie Blackmon before turning it over to Maeda. He got two outs, including a strikeout of Nolan Arenado to end the game and earn his second save.“Still makes me a little nervous,” Maeda said of filling in as closer.Chris Rusin (2-3) took the loss for the Rockies, who had their five-game winning streak halted. They’re chasing after their first division title.“We just need to kick that to the side,” said starter Jon Gray, who went four innings, allowed two runs, walked five and struck out four. “We know what kind of ball club we are. We’re a lot better than we were today.”Reliever Dylan Floro threw one of the biggest pitches of the game when he struck out Trevor Story on a slider with two outs and the bases loaded in the seventh. Story hit three homers Wednesday against San Francisco, including one that went an estimated 505 feet.A crowd of 41,547 saw a game that featured a little bit of everything, including Matt Holliday hitting his first regular season homer off Kershaw, Rockies manager Bud Black getting ejected for arguing a balk call in the fifth and, later that inning, a throwing error by Gold Glove third baseman Arenado which allowed the go-ahead run to score.Puig followed with a two-out Rafael Devers Jersey , run-scoring single to give the Dodgers a 4-2 lead.TRAINER’S ROOMDodgers: RHP Ross Stripling (lower back inflammation) was reinstated from the disabled list. He got one out in the eighth.Rockies: LHP Mike Dunn is scheduled to have surgery on his pitching shoulder Sept. 19. He’s been sidelined since early July.GOING FOR THIRDKershaw pulled into second with a double in the sixth and thought about stretching it into a triple.“I was thinking about Coors Field and you don’t breathe as well and I don’t want to be tired,” Kershaw said.NO JANSENJansen has experienced an irregular heartbeat several times while the Dodgers were in Colorado. His most recent episode happened Aug. 9 during the start of a four-game series at Coors Field. He ended up having his heart shocked back into rhythm at a Denver hospital. He was placed on the disabled list a day later and began taking blood-thinning medication.Dodgers manager Dave Roberts plans to use a bullpen-by-committee approach this weekend.Jansen is slated to join the team in Cincinnati, the second of three stops on the Dodgers’ 10-game trip.HOLLIDAY’S HOMERHolliday homered off Kershaw during Game 2 of the Division Series on Oct. 8, 2009, while he was with St. Louis.UP NEXTDodgers rookie RHP Walker Buehler (6-2, 2.92) gets another taste of Coors Field on Saturday. He threw seven scoreless innings on Aug. 11 in a no-decision. The Rockies counter with LHP Kyle Freeland (13-7, 2.96), whose 2.27 home ERA season is among the league’s best. The St. Louis Cardinals were barreling toward their third consecutive missed postseason when they made the decision to part ways with manager Mike Matheny and turn the reins over to Mike Shildt.They still wound up missing the playoffs.But oh, what a run they made.A club that was hovering around .500 when Matheny was dumped in July set a record for consecutive series wins, and climbed into the playoff race well into September. St. Louis was finally eliminated on the season’s penultimate day, but the organization was left feeling much better about the future.“We’ve been in postseason mode since virtually the All-Star break,” Shildt said, “so you appreciate what went well, and you appreciate and grow through experiences and you grow together. There’s a lot of takeaways, and the good news is we’ll take advantage of it. I can promise you that.”Shildt, who never played the game beyond college, was so impressive in righting the course as a first-time manager that the Cardinals stripped him of the interim tag before the end of the season. That answered the biggest question heading into the offseason.Now, the Cardinals can begin planning around their young core for next season. Erstwhile cornerstone Adam Wainwright http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-j.-d.-martinez-jersey , first baseman Matt Adams and pitchers Tyson Ross and Bud Norris are not expected back, which means the Cardinals will head to spring training largely intact.“What I take away is really simple, really how you respond,” outfielder Harrison Bader said. “Kind of got kicked in the teeth a little bit, but to have 162 games and then ultimately it come down to the last four or five, playing meaningful baseball that late in the season is what it’s all about.“Unfortunately this year we didn’t come out on the right side of where we really wanted to be,” he said, “but it very easily could have gone another way. To set us up in that position with such a young team and young in terms of age and experience, it’s no excuse but it’s very promising.”REBOUND CANDIDATESDexter Fowler hit just .180 with a handful of stolen bases, and considering he is due $16.5 million each of the next three seasons, the Cardinals need their offensive sparkplug to be more spark and less plug. Pitchers Alex Reyes and Brett Cecil also struggled, the former with injuries and the latter with effectiveness.STILL CATCHINGYadier Molina proved he’s still one of the best backstops in the game, even though he missed some time with an injury. The 36-year-old catcher hit .261 but slugged .436, and he belted 20 homers with 74 RBIs while helping to bring along a young pitching staff.ABOUT THAT STAFFInjuries decimated the staff early in the season, but that merely thrust some young guys into the mix. Now they’re poised to form a formidable rotation next season, and competition to crack it will be brutal in spring training. Miles Mikolas and Michael Wacha are sure things, but Reyes, Jack Flaherty David Ross Jersey , Dakota Hudson, Carlos Martinez, Austin Gomber and others are eyeing a job.ERRORS GALOREThe Cardinals had the most errors in the majors with 133, or more than double the club with the fewest (Houston with 63). All those mistakes put more pressure on that injury-riddled pitching staff and an offense that finally started humming late in the year.“We’ve got some room for improvement in some of these areas,” Shildt acknowledged. “I think in general there is optimism about how this team is going about competition and the style of play and excited about what it looks like moving forward. I think there’s a real good energy behind our fan base right now. It should be, at least.”BIG SPLASHDespite so many returning pieces, the one thing the Cardinals could use is a middle-of-the-order slugger. Manny Machado or Bryce Harper would fit the bill, but quite frankly, the bill is also quite large. Regardless, the Cardinals could use a consistent force in the middle of the lineup.“Three straight years of coming up short. We as an organization, as a total group top to bottom everybody in this clubhouse, all the staff, we have to find a way to get better,” first baseman Matt Carpenter said. “We’re headed in the right direction. The second half was definitely a good starting point, but we’ve got to find a way to get there.”

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