Andrew Toles had three hits and scored two runs in the Dodgers' balanced attack to beat the Cardinals 7-2 on Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
Toles reached on an infield single in the third inning and eventually scored on a squeeze bunt by Kenta Maeda, a bunt to no man's land leaving first base open allowing Maeda to reach on a single.
That opened the door for a big inning, and the Dodgers took advantage, with an RBI single by Corey Seager and a two-run double by Justin Turner for a 4-0 lead.
Toles also doubled in the fourth inning, then singled in the sixth, the latter a part of a three-run inning by the Dodgers that included Toles scoring from first on a single despite running through a stop sign, thanks to Matt Adams botching a relay.
It has been a remarkable rise for Toles, the former Rays prospect who was out of baseball in 2015 after dealing with anxiety. He got a second chance with the Dodgers, and made the most of it, starting the year in Class-A Rancho Cucamonga and working his way up level by level, through Double-A Tulsa then Triple-A Oklahoma City before reaching Los Angeles.
Saturday was the 10th major league game for Toles, who is 9-for-23 (.391) with two doubles and two walks, sporting a .440 on-base percentage.
He wasn't alone on offense for the Dodgers, who saw all nine starters collect at least one hit. The only one not to either score or drive in a run was Howie Kendrick, who was 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.
The RBI single for Seager extended his hitting streak to seven games, hitting .400 (14-for-35) during that span. With a five-run lead and Seager having missed three games this week with a stomach bug and after playing 16 innings on Friday night, he was pulled after six innings as a precaution on Saturday.
The Dodgers' three-run rally in the sixth inning began with a solo home run by Adrian Gonzalez, his eighth of the season. Gonzalez in July is hitting .304/.388/.464 and with seven extra-base hits in 18 games matches total for all of June, in 27 games.
Armed with a lead, Kenta Maeda cruised into the fifth inning, when Adams hit his second home run in as many days to put the Cardinals on the board.
Two singles in the sixth, plus an error by Toles in right field, helped St. Louis add a run in the sixth. A third single in the inning ended Maeda's night perhaps a little earlier than he expected, but he earned the win with three strikeouts and no walks in his 5⅔ frames.
Maeda has walked zero or one batter in 10 of his 20 starts.
Up next
The Dodgers go for the series win on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball in the road trip finale, with Scott Kazmir on the mound, with pickle juice and mustard at the ready. The Cardinals are expected to call up right-hander Mike Mayers, their third-round draft pick in 2013, to start Sunday night, making his major league debut.
Saturday particulars
Home runs: Adrian Gonzalez (8); Matt Adams (12)
WP - Kenta Maeda (9-7): 5⅔ IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 3 strikeouts
LP - Mike Leake (7-8): 6 IP, 12 hits, 7 runs (6 earned), 4 strikeouts