The Dodgers won the first game of their crucial four-game weekend series against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium on Thursday night … but just barely.

In fact, if you were to rate their performance during their eventual 9-7 win over the current National League Wild Card leaders with only 15 games left to play in the 2018 regular season – including three more against these same Cardinals – it would start out as a perfect 10, but would dwindle down to a two … as in the number of runs by which they won.

There were many good things in Thursday night’s series opener, most notably Manny Machado‘s outstanding 3-for-4 / 3-RBI night that left him but a triple shy of hitting for the cycle, and Clayton Kershaw‘s gutsy four-run (three earned) / eight-hit / 6.0-inning performance in which he walked two and struck out eight. There was also the fact that every Dodgers starter player – including Kershaw – collected at least one base hit on the night except for Dodgers second baseman Brian Dozier.

Machado’s seventh inning solo home run gave him his third RBI of the night. Although no one knew it at the time, the Dodgers would need all three of them to hang on to their eventual 9-7 win over the Cardinals.
(Photo credit – Billy Hurst)

But as you begin to dig deeper into the three-hour and 28 minute game, which ended with the potential tying run in Dodger killer Matt Adams grounding out to Dodgers first baseman Cody Bellinger on a season-high 29-pitch outing by Dodgers All-Star closer Kenley Jansen, you quickly realize that it very easily could have ended in disaster.

Not only did it take Jansen 29 excruciating pitches to finally record the last out, he had given up two runs (one earned) on one hit and walked two before finally doing so.

“It got a little nerve-racking there,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after his All-Star closer nearly squandered a 9-5 lead in the bottom of the ninth. “Obviously, he’s our guy. But he wasn’t sharp tonight. And he found a way to close it out for us.”

As you might expect from a guy with far more serious life issues than closing out a baseball game (i.e. arrhythmia), it was like water off a duck’s back for the ever-stoic Dodger closer.

“Just got the job done. Can’t worry about it,” Jansen said. “I’m not throwing strikes, that’s the one thing. But you got to keep going.”

Jansen gets a congratulatory hug from Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal after finally getting the last out in the bottom of the ninth inning to secure the Dodgers 9-7 win. (Video capture courtesy of SportsNet LA)

But it wasn’t just Jansen’s rough outing that added a few new gray hairs to Dodger fans. He had help (if you can call it that) from that same Manny Machado, who turned what should have been a game-ending 4-6-3 double play into a two run throwing error to pull the Cardinals to within two of the Dodgers and bringing the aforementioned Matt Adams to the plate with two outs and a runner on first; the same Matt Adams with five career home runs against the Dodgers, including a walk-off solo home run off of Jansen in a 16-inning game on July 22, 2016. Fortunately, there would be no second – not on this night, at least.

As for Kershaw, he is always willing to talk about his outings – good or bad – and will often fall on his sword while doing so.

“I felt good tonight,” said the Dodgers ace and future Hall of Famer. “My curveball wasn’t great, but the other two [fastball and slider], I felt like I had pretty good command of.

“The fifth inning was my fault,” Kershaw added, about an inning in which he allowed three runs, including a solo home run to Cardinals reliever Tyson Ross. “I can’t give up a homer to the pitcher, obviously. It was a little bit frustrating that the inning ended up that way because I felt pretty good. Other than that, with that many runs [ahead], just try to limit the damage. It was a big win for us.”

Big and essential.

Although not as sharp as he wanted it to be, Kershaw said the he “felt good” about his outing against the Cardinals on Thursday night. (Photo credit – Marcus Wright)

Earlier in the day, the NL West-leading Colorado Rockies pounded the NL West-third place Arizona Diamondbacks 10-3 at Coors Field, which put the Dodgers 2.0 games behind the suddenly red-hot division leaders when the Dodgers began play on Thursday evening. But by hanging on to beat the Cardinals, the Dodgers remain 1.5 GB of the Rockies, with whom they begin a three-game series at Dodger Stadium on Monday; a series that will, in all likelihood, determine whether the Dodgers will be in the postseason or watching it from home.