LA Dodgers fall to St. Louis Cardinals on Matt Adams' home run in 16th

ST. LOUIS >> Brandon McCarthy left Friday’s game in the seventh iing when his right calf cramped up.

The Dodgers’ offense also tightened up uncomfortably at inopportune times.

The Dodgers outhit the St. Louis Cardinals 11-1 through the first six iings and 14-8 overall but went 1 for 13 with ruers in scoring position, stranding 13 ruers on base. That left no margin for error for the Dodgers’ bullpen — and they made too many.

Kenley Jansen suffered his fifth blown save of the season when he allowed a tying home run to Jedd Gyorko with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. It took another seven iings and Friday had become Saturday when Matt Adams crushed a solo home run off Bud Norris to give the Cardinals a 4-3 victory in 16 iings.

The 16-iing marathon matched the longest game in the history of the Dodgers-Cardinals rivalry.

The Dodgers seemed to have found their own hero when Justin Tuer broke a tie and gave them a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth with a solo home run, his third home run in the past two games.

Tuer’s 14 home runs and 36 RBIs since June 10 are the most in the majors. Since retuing from the All-Star break, Tuer is 12 for 32 (.375) with five home runs and 12 RBI (including six of the Dodgers’ nine over the past two days).

McCarthy had pitched into the seventh iing for the first time in his four starts since retuing from Tommy John surgery. He allowed just one hit in that time. But that hit produced two runs when Joc Pederson fumbled Aledmys Diaz’s RBI single into left-center field, allowing a second run to score in the third iing.

The Dodgers needed Howie Kendrick’s solo home run in the sixth iing to tie the score (it also extended his hitting streak to 14 games) because they had gone 1 for 10 with ruers in scoring position to that point, coming up empty in those situations except for Corey Seager’s RBI in the first iing.

The single was one of four for Seager, who finished Sunday’s game in Arizona with three consecutive doubles, missed the three-game series in Washington with a stomach virus and retued to collecting hits Friday. He had hits in seven consecutive plate appearances (three short of Andre Ethier’s franchise record) before flying out in the ninth iing.

After the seventh iing, the Dodgers’ offense dried up entirely. Thirteen of 14 batters were retired by Cardinals relievers at one point with Tuer’s ninth-iing home run the only interruption. They had just one hit in extra iings, a bloop double by Austin Baes with two outs in the top of the 15th.

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Norris, Wednesday’s starter in Washington, was pressed into service as a reliever in the 15th iing, the ninth pitcher in the game for the Dodgers. Adams crushed an 0-and-1 fastball from Norris with one out in the 16th to end the game.