LOS ANGELES • The decision that helped the Cardinals was the Dodgers to make.
In the seventh inning Sunday of a tie game, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had two pinch-hitters ready to face reliever Joe Blanton and forced the Dodger dugout to pick if one of them was going to get a free pass to the open first base. The choice was between having Blanton face a hitter with strong numbers against him or one with stronger.
Brandon Moss got the intentional walk.
Yadier Molina delivered the impact hit.
Molina struck a two-run double that broke the tie and sent the Cardinals to a 5-2 victory at Dodger Stadium.