DODGERS STAY ALIVE; TIGERS EVEN SERIES
DODGERS 6, CARDINALS 4
los angeles » It took the Dodgers five games to hit a home run in the NL Championship Series. Once Adrian Gonzalez powered up for the first one, their dormant offense broke loose.
Gonzalez homered twice, and Zack Greinke came through with the clutch performance Los Angeles needed in a 6-4 victory over the Cardinals on Wednesday that trimmed St. Louis’ lead to 3-2 in the best-ofseven series.
“Guys weren’t ready to lose today,” said Carl Crawford, who also went deep to help the Dodgers save their season.
The series shifts back to St. Louis for Game 6 on Friday night, with ace Clayton Kershaw scheduled to start for Los Angeles against rookie MichaelWacha.
When those two squared off in Game 2, the Cardinals won 1-0 on an unearned run.
“We’ve kind of become America’s team because everyonewants to see a seventh game,” Dodgersmanager DonMattingly said. “Probably even the fans in St. Louis would like to see a seventh game, so I figure that everybody’s for us to win on Friday night.”
The Cardinals also led last year’s NLCS 3-1 before losing three straight games to the eventual World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
“We’re looking to do the same thing,” Gonzalez said.
Desperate to avoid elimination, the Dodgers brought in some Hollywood star power for pregame introductions. Will Ferrell announced their lineup and lent a comic spin to each player’s name, capping it by introducing Greinke as “today’s winning pitcher.” Ferrell knew what he was talking about. Greinke got into a bases-loaded jam with none out in the first inning but escaped with no damage. From there, he pitched seven strong innings and even delivered anRBI single.
“Thatwas big. Iwas real nervous out there with that situation,” Greinke said.
Helped by playing in 82-degree heat on a sunny afternoon, the Dodgers rediscovered their power stroke— A.J. Ellis also homered — just in time to extend the series. They held on in the ninth inning, when St. Louis scored twice off closer Kenley Jansen before he struck out pinch-hitter Adron Chambers with two on to end it.