So, Rod Barajas has raised his all-time Dodger slugging percentage without Dioner Navarro as a teammate to .681.

Barajas had 10 total bases tonight, a season high for the Dodgers, hitting two home runs and a double and driving in four runs in Los Angeles’ second highest scoring output of the season, 13-2 over St. Louis.

Matt Kemp got the Dodgers going in the first inning with a three-run home run, the MVP candidate’s 29th of the season, and later added a double of his own. Justin Sellers contributed two doubles and a single.

And while there was an emergency pitcher on this Dodger road trip, it wasn’t James Loney but rather the Cardinals’ Skip Schumacher, who struck out Trent Oeltjen to start the ninth inning but later surrendered a home run to Aaron Miles (career ERA 3.60) before finishing off his inning.

Clayton Kershaw … well, shoot, he needed 108 sweaty pitches just to get through his six innings of shutout ball, so what good is he? Just good enough to lower his ERA to 2.51 (third in the majors) and reach 200 strikeouts for the second consecutive season, the first Dodger to do that since Chan Ho Park in 2000-01, notes Eric Stephen of True Blue L.A. He’s also the first under-24 pitcher since Dwight Gooden to reach 200 two years in a row, wrote Steve Dilbeck of the Times.  Kershaw trails Justin Verlander for the major-league lead in strikeouts, 212-207.

After pitching two scoreless innings, Blake Hawsworth was given the chance to preserve the shutout with a three-inning save – trying to become the eighth Dodger with a save this season – but loaded the bases before allowing a run-scoring double play. Hong-Chih Kuo gave up an RBI single before notching the final out.