Scott Schebler singles in first major league at-bat

LOS ANGELES -- The Dodgers lost 2-1 on Friday to the Cardinals, but that won't make the day any less memorable for Scott Schebler, who made his major league debut and singled in his first major league at-bat.

Schebler's Friday began with a 1:30 a.m. CT call from Triple-A Oklahoma City manager Damon Berryhill that he was getting called up to the big leagues. He called his parents and a few select family and friends in the middle of the night with the news.

It was pretty late," Schebler recalled. "I called my parents and woke them up, then woke some other people up. I made some people happy, I made some people angry with me waking them up. It was an awesome time."

Schebler grabbed his things from the ballpark on Friday morning, then boarded a flight to Los Angeles. He arrived at the park just in time for batting practice, thrown right into the fire.

"It was nice to get warmed up after a flight, get the body going," Schebler said.

He lined a single to left center field in the second inning against Carlos Martinez.

"It was kind of a relief. It was nice to get a fly ball out there early, to get my feet wet out there. I think that made me feel more comfortable and more confident," Schebler said. "Then I put a good swing on the ball, and the confidence kept rolling. It was nice to get out of the way."

Schebler then struck out swinging in the fourth inning, and lined out to center in the seventh, finishing his night 1-for-3. That strikeout in the fourth was one of 11 for Martinez, setting a new career high.

"He's got really, really good stuff," Schebler said of Martinez. "Me and Mark [McGwire] had our game plan going. My second at-bat got away from it a little bit, and you saw what happened."

.500 plus

The Dodgers entered Friday 3-10 against teams .500 or better season, which coming in meant the Cardinals and Giants. The Dodgers still haven't performed well against those teams — they are 2-7 against San Francisco and now 1-4 against St. Louis — but thanks the Padres winning, San Diego is now 28-28 on the season.

Meaning the Dodgers actually improved their record against .500 or better teams on Friday, to 9-14. Whatever the mark is, starter Brett Anderson didn't seem worried.

"It's kind of fluky. We're going to come out of it. We're just in a funk right now. Baseball is a game of streaks," Anderson said. "We could go out and put up 10 tomorrow, then ride that wave for a while."

Up next

The Dodgers will try to put up 10 runs and snap their three-game losing streak on Saturday night, a 7:10 p.m. PT start, with Clayton Kershaw on the mound. St. Louis will counter with left-hander Jaime Garcia.

The offense might be infused with Yasiel Puig, who was 1-for-3 with a home run in his second rehab game with Class-A Rancho Cucamonga on Friday night. Before the game Puig said on Instagram, "Last day in lancaster. Ready for LA tomorrow."

Puig went even further after the game in Lancaster when meeting with reporters.

"It’s not my decision but this is my last game here," Puig said, per Ron Cervenka at Think Blue LA.

The idea wasn't dismissed by manager Don Mattingly after the game. Puig was removed after playing six innings in right field on Friday, but not because of injury.

"What I heard was all positive," Mattingly said. "He didn't come out for anything negative."

Howie Kendrick was unavailable again on Friday night. His availability on Saturday will likely depend on how his knee responds in the morning.