White struggles with 2 outs: 'We just couldn't finish innings'

ST. LOUIS -- If Tuesday night at Busch Stadium didn’t feel like the most challenging start of Mitch White’s young career, it’s likely because the Cardinals did damage in situations where it seemed White would surely escape and after he’d nearly gotten out of trouble.

Unfortunately for White, he didn’t quite get there, and the Dodgers surrendered two-out rallies in three consecutive innings, dropping the series opener, 7-6, to St. Louis.

“We just couldn't finish innings,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “In starts past, Mitch has been pretty good about that. But you’ve gotta give those guys credit for extending innings.”

In the second inning, after retiring Nolan Arenado and Nolan Gorman on ground balls to second base -- one of which required a full out sprint from White to cover first -- Albert Pujols delivered a Statcast-projected 386-foot line drive home run to left in his first at-bat against L.A. since leaving the Dodgers. Pujols was followed by four consecutive hits and a wild pitch, scoring two more runs and pushing the Cardinals out to an early 3-0 lead.

Gorman homered with two outs in the third, and after allowing a second double of the night to Corey Dickerson and second RBI single to Andrew Knizner, White retired Tommy Edman on a double play. The Cardinals, though, struck again with Arenado’s RBI single providing St. Louis with its fifth two-out run of the night.

White finished with six earned runs allowed on 10 hits and two walks in his five innings pitched. The hits and earned runs represented career highs, and his season ERA jumped from 3.38 to 4.20. He struck out three and described his night as “definitely a grinder.”

“It felt like a quick two outs, pretty good, solid, and then a bomb or a walk or whatever,” White said. “That’s just something I need to limit. Step on the gas pedal, keep going.”

“For him to get through five innings, give us five innings, was still beneficial,” Roberts said. “And we still had a chance to win.”

Indeed, L.A. nearly chipped entirely away at the lead as the game wore on. Trea Turner blasted his own homer off the façade of the third deck in the fifth inning, and after Austin Barnes drove in Hanser Alberto with a groundout in the sixth, the seventh inning seemed set for serious damage.

Turner reached on catcher interference and was singled home by Will Smith, but after a walk to Justin Turner to load the bases with no one out, the Dodgers would move no more.

Packy Naughton induced fly balls from Max Muncy (pinch-hitting for Trayce Thompson) and Alberto not deep enough to score runs and got Cody Bellinger to swing through a fastball to end the threat.

“I just felt right there, to get [Cardinals righty Junior] Fernández out of the game, [Naughton] is a neutral guy," Roberts explained. "Max got a 3-1 fastball, and he popped it up. So we couldn’t have asked for a better situation. We’ve just got to execute right there. It just didn’t happen.”

“I thought we played a heck of a ballgame,” he added. “I don't think Mitch pitched particularly well, but for him to go five innings [is important], and I thought offensively we were good.”

Trea Turner was 2-for-4 with the home run and three runs scored, and Freddie Freeman added four hits, including a homer of his own and two RBIs in L.A.’s failed attempt to run St. Louis down.

The four-hit game was Freeman’s second consecutive and fourth of the season, the most in the Majors.

“You get into those little zones where you get pitches to hit and you don’t miss them,” he said. “You just try to ride it as long as you possibly can because it’s going to end soon.”

That home run for Freeman brought the game back within one run in the top of the ninth inning. After working the count to 3-1 against Giovanny Gallegos, he delivered a 417-foot shot to eliminate any remaining margin for error from the Cardinals.

Gallegos, however, recovered. Smith and Justin Turner struck out, and a fly ball to center off the bat of Jake Lamb gave St. Louis the win in the first meeting between the clubs in 2022.

“You have the right people coming up due, and sometimes it just doesn’t happen,” Freeman said. “After the end of the game, we just take a step back and realize we came back again and gave ourselves a really good chance to win that game.”