Game 55: Brett Anderson and the Dodgers are skunked again.

Dodger Stadium skunks

Animal control workers investigate the presence of skunks beneath a photographer’s well in the Cardinals’ dugout before Friday’s game. (Associated Press photo)

By the time this homestand is over, the Dodgers will have played 35 of their first 60 games this season at home. Between that and the record payroll, they really should be in first place in the National League West.

They are tonight, but only by the slimmest of margins after losing 2-1 to the St. Louis Cardinals. Brett Anderson had a funny quote in my story, but you knew he was a funny guy already.

Tonight’s box score is here.

Scott Schebler is living the dream. He made his major league debut and singled in his first at-bat. To live the dream, he first had to live a nightmare at what might be the most pitcher-friendly park in the Pacific Coast League.

Things got better, he said, when Dodgers’ farm director Gabe Kapler gave Schebler a reason to believe in himself beyond his struggling batting average. I didn’t have time to put this anecdote in my story, but Schebler said that Kapler told him that the statistics the team was using to evaluate him indicated “you’re fine, you’re right where we want you to be, you’re in a good place.”

What were the statistics? “Some exit velocity stuff and then they have some — he explained it to me, I didn’t understand all of it, but I understand a little bit of it,” Schebler said. “They use that quite a bit, so I heard.”

Yasiel Puig might be back tomorrow. So might Howie Kendrick, who was unavailable for the second straight day because of a stiff left knee.