Cardinals aim for four-game sweep over Dodgers

Walker Buehler dominated the St. Louis Cardinals as a rookie last season, much the way Michael Wacha completely shut down the Los Angeles Dodgers as a first-year pitcher during the playoffs 5 1/2 years ago.

Both right-handers will look to find that success when the Cardinals host the Dodgers in the finale of their four-game series on Thursday afternoon.

The Cardinals have won the first three games of the series and four consecutive overall.

Walker faced St. Louis twice last season and threw a combined 15 shutout innings.

He blanked the Cardinals on two hits over eight innings in a 3-0 victory on Sept. 14 in St. Louis. He missed out on a win the previous month when the Dodgers gave up a run in the eighth and two in the ninth in the 3-1 loss in Los Angeles. Wacha gained notoriety when he beat the Dodgers twice in a six-day span to help clinch the 2013 NL Championship Series. Wacha did not allow a run over a combined 13 2/3 innings in Game 2 and the deciding Game 6. In both starts, he went up against Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw, who had won his second NL Cy Young in 2013.

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Several current members of the Dodgers have had success against Wacha.

A.J. Pollock is 5-for-10 with a home run, Justin Turner is 4-for-11, Corey Seager is 3-for-8 and David Freese, his teammate with the Cardinals in 2013, is 7-for-18.

Buehler (1-0, 6.75) had a rough season opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowing five runs and five hits in three innings, but avoided the loss when the Dodgers rallied to win 8-7. He bounced back with five strong innings at the Colorado Rockies on Saturday, allowing one run and three hits in the 7-2 win.

“It’s still a bit of a work in progress, but I threw some pitches that I liked (against the Rockies), liked the feel of,” Buehler said. “So we’ll get there.” St. Louis third baseman Matt Carpenter, a three-time NL All Star who signed a two-year contract extension on Wednesday, is 0-for-7 in his career against Buehler with six strikeouts.

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