Continuing their season-long trend of being a much more explosive offensively on the road than while playing at spacious Busch Stadium, the Cardinals throttled the back-to-back champion Dodgers with a flurry of long balls and some MLB debut magic from rookie catcher Leo Bernal in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
Thomas Saggese homered twice, Jordan Walker, Ramon Urias and Joshua Baez added long balls and Bernal drove in two runs with his first MLB hit in a five-run third inning as St. Louis smashed Los Angeles 13-8 at Dodger Stadium.
The 13 runs were the most the Cards have ever scored at Dodger Stadium, which opened in 1962. The Dodgers scored three times in the ninth inning against rookie reliever Cade Winquest.
"We had a lot of fun and it's always fun when you put up runs and you are batting around," said Saggese, who hit solo homers in the second and fifth innings. "It's obviously fun to win ball games as well."
The Cardinals opened their three-city, nine-game road trip with 13 hits and five homers as they overwhelmed the Dodgers with two runs in the second, five in the third, two in the fourth and single runs in the fifth and seventh and two more in the eighth inning.
TWO-HOMER GAME FOR THOMAS SAGGESE! pic.twitter.com/74OZ8SIWXc
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 2, 2026It was the 10th time this season that the Cardinals scored at least 10 runs – nine of them coming when playing outside of St. Louis. Incredibly, the Cards came into Tuesday night averaging 3.81 runs per game at home (29th in MLB) and 5.09 runs per game on the road (third in MLB).
Bernal, the No. 7-ranked prospect in the Cardinals’ Minor League system, drilled a 107.6 mph single into left-center in the third inning to score Ivan Herrera and Walker for his first hit. The Cardinals requested the baseball after the hit and it was authenticated for Bernal’s trophy case back in Panama City, Panama. The switch-hitting catcher finished 1 for 5 with two strikeouts.
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Saggese, who was recalled from Triple-A Memphis on Sunday when standout rookie JJ Wetherholt was placed on the 10-day Injured List with right wrist tendinitis, backed up his three-hit day on Sunday with the first multi-homer night of his MLB career. He is the first Cardinals player to hit two home runs in a game at Dodgers Stadium since Albert Pujols did it on Sept. 23, 2022, for career homers 699 and 700 for the future Hall of Famer. He finished the game 2 for 3 with three runs scored and three RBI.
Walker torched a 409-foot, two-run homer in the fourth inning to push his RBI total for the season to 99 – trailing only Sal Stewart’s 105 and Alec Burleson’s 100 RBI. Of his 99 RBI, Walker has an MLB-leading 68 runs batted in on the road this season. Also, Walker has 55 career homers off 55 different pitchers. He finished the night 3 for 5 with two runs scored and two RBI.
Jordan Walker LASER BEAM pic.twitter.com/AN99Wi6JDa
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 2, 2026The Cardinals won two of three against the Dodgers in St. Louis from May 1-3, and their victory on Tuesday gives them three wins in four meetings. However, they must face L.A. aces Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tarik Skubal over the next two nights.
Urias and Saggese went back-to-back with homers in the second inning off Dodgers’ left-hander Eric Lauer, who had been 7-1 with LA since parting ways with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Baez, who set MLB history on Aug. 15 with homers in the first three at bats of his big-league career, drilled a 404-foot shot off Justin Wrobleski in the seventh inning. Though he is hitting just .175 in 17 games, he has mashed six homers and driven in 11 runs in his first 57 at bats.
Michael McGreevy (6-9) survived five innings to earn his first win since Aug. 15. He got a bit of bad luck in the third inning when Jose Fermin and Walker collided and jarred the ball free, allowing three runs to score. McGreevy surrendered five hits, four earned runs and two walks, while striking out four.
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