Miguel Vargas and Mookie Betts power reinforced Dodgers to win over Cardinals

The Dodgers found a kindred spirit in the St. Louis Cardinals Friday night, a fellow defending division champion that has underachieved and underwhelmed for the first month of the season.

The visitors served as something of a healing balm for the Dodgers, who overcame a rocky start from Dustin May with an early homer from Mookie Betts and a late two-run shot from Miguel Vargas for a 7-3 victory before a crowd of 48,138 in Chavez Ravine.

May walked two and gave up two runs in a 26-pitch first and needed a career-high 104 pitches to complete five innings, but the Cardinals (10-17) couldn’t put another dent in May or the bullpen until the ninth, when they scored once off left-hander Alex Vesia.

Betts opened the bottom of the first with his 38th career leadoff home run, a towering shot just inside the left-field foul pole, and Vargas capped the team’s scoring with a two-out, two-run homer to left–his first of the season–for a 7-2 lead in the seventh.

The heart of a Dodgers lineup that ranks second in baseball in homers but has struggled to produce runs consistently, got a significant boost with Friday’s return of No. 3 hitter Will Smith from a concussion and cleanup man Max Muncy from the paternity list.

Muncy, who entered Friday with a major league-leading 11 homers and 1.129 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, walked in a two-run first and drove an RBI double to right-center field in a two-run third.

St. Louis took a 2-0 lead in the first, Lars Nootbar scoring on a wild pitch and Willson Contreras hitting a sacrifice fly. After Betts’ leadoff homer in the bottom of the first, Freddie Freeman singled, Muncy walked, and Jason Heyward rolled an RBI single to right to make it 2-2.

May walked two batters to open the third but escaped the jam with the help of Heyward, who made a nice diving catch of Nolan Arenado’s slicing drive toward the line in right field.

Dodgers starting pitcher Dustin May delivers during the first inning of a 7-3 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)

Freeman led off the bottom of the third with a single and scored from first on Muncy’s double to make it 3-2. Heyward followed with a squibber inside the third-base bag that went for an RBI double and a 4-2 lead.

The Dodgers got two breaks to tack on in the fifth, the first when a catcher’s interference call nullified Heyward’s fly out to right and allowed the Dodgers to load the bases with one out. Flaherty then hit James Outman, who struck out in his six previous at-bats, with an 0-and-2 curve to force in a run to make it 5-2.

Short hops

To clear roster spots for Muncy, Graterol and Smith, the team optioned infielder Luke Williams and left-hander Justin Bruihl to triple-A and placed designated hitter J.D. Martinez on the 10-day injured list because of lower-back tightness.