Albert Pujols homers again as Cardinals use 4-run 9th inning to top Pirates
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The Pittsburgh Pirates were well aware of how dangerous Albert Pujols is with one swing of the bat, especially at PNC Park and even more so as the St. Louis Cardinals star chases the 700 home run milestone.
One night after providing tying hits on a double and a homer, Pujols smashed a two-run homer off Chase De Jong to give the Cardinals the lead in the top of the ninth inning.
The 697th homer of Pujols’ 22-year major-league career highlighted a four-run ninth inning that catapulted the Cardinals to a 4-3 win Sunday afternoon before an announced crowd of 10,398 at PNC Park.
“It’s pretty well documented what he’s capable of doing,” De Jong said. “The situation I faced him in, I need to go out there and get a save and solidify a win for the team, and I executed really poorly and I didn’t do it. I have a blown save, and we have a loss because of it. The guy’s one of the greatest hitters of all time. He’s supposed to do that when I don’t execute. Fact of the matter is he did his job, I didn’t do mine.”
The Pirates were winning 2-0 going into the ninth when De Jong entered with a 19-inning scoreless streak — although he allowed an inherited runner to score Friday night against the Cardinals — and gave up back-to-back doubles to Tommy Edman and Corey Dickerson to cut it to 2-1.
Pujols crushed a belt-high 2-0 fastball 403 feet to center to give the Cardinals a 3-2 lead. It was his second consecutive game with a home run, and this one broke a tie with Alex Rodriguez for fourth among all-time home runs leaders behind Barry Bonds (762), Henry Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714).
“It’s extremely impressive,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said of Pujols. “We’re talking about one of the best players of our generation. He’s finishing his career very strongly. You know it’s in there, that he has the ability and you still have to execute pitches to him. The one thing you can say about guys of his magnitude is the moment is never too big for him, and he stays under control. If you make mistakes, he’s going to capitalize.”
The outcome overshadowed another terrific start by Pirates right-hander Mitch Keller, who had six strikeouts while allowing three walks and two hits in tossing seven scoreless innings against a lineup that was missing NL MVP candidates Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.
Keller extended his scoreless streak to 15 innings, the longest by a Pirates starting pitcher this season. The previous top two marks were held by Jose Quintana, who tossed 14 consecutive scoreless innings from May 9-21 and 13 2/3 scoreless innings from July 15-29. Since he started to complement his four-seam fastball and curveball with the sinker May 25, Keller has lowered his ERA from 6.37 to 3.19 in 101 2/3 innings over 18 starts.
“Just one of those things where I feel really good, and everything was working,” Keller said. “Every spin pitch I had was working really good. The four-seam and two-seam were playing really well. I only threw two changeups, but they were both pretty good. So any time you can have a mix like that going, it’s going to be a good day.”
In his first start at PNC Park since being traded to the Cardinals for right-hander Johan Oviedo and Double-A first baseman Malcom Nunez on Aug. 1, Quintana allowed one run on four hits and one walk while striking out four in 5 2/3 innings.
The Pirates took a 1-0 lead when Greg Allen led off the third inning with a single to right, stole second base, reached third on Jason Delay’s single and scored when Oneil Cruz grounded into a forceout at second but beat the throw to first. When Bryan Reynolds was called out on a check swing, Derek Shelton vehemently argued the call with home plate umpire Clint Vondrak until the Pirates manager was ejected.
Kevin Newman singled to left to start the fifth, reached second on Allen’s sacrifice and third on Delay’s groundout but was stranded when Quintana got Cruz swinging at a full-count curveball. The Cardinals pulled Quintana after a Ke’Bryan Hayes single in the sixth, and Jordan Hicks got Michael Chavis to fly out to center for the final out.
Hicks wasn’t as fortunate with the next batter he faced. Jack Suwinski sent a 3-2 slider 382 feet to right-center for his 16th home run, marking the second consecutive game the rookie outfielder homered.
The Pirates had runners on first and second with one out in the eighth when Cardinals right fielder Lars Nootbaar made a pair of big catches, robbing Hayes and Chavis of hits and preventing the Pirates from padding their lead.
“I think Lars Nootbaar was the turning point in the game,” Shelton said. “He makes two great catches in the eighth inning. If the first ball that we hit catches off his glove, we score one, if not two. Then the other nice running catch to the wall on a ball that Chavis hit that was pretty well struck.”
After Pujols gave the Cardinals the lead, Tyler O’Neill hammered De Jong’s 2-2 slider 410 feet to straightaway center for his 14th homer to stretch it to 4-2. The Pirates got a two-out solo shot from Allen to cut it to 4-3, but Ryan Helsley got pinch hitter Ben Gamel to fly out to center for the final out.
The NL Central-leading Cardinals took two out of three games against the Pirates, winning both despite trailing going into the eighth inning. That led to a level of frustration for the Pirates, who have lost 21 of their 39 games decided by one run this season.
“They don’t beat themselves,” Shelton said of the Cardinals. “That is the one thing about them that I think we see time and time again. And this is not just this year. This is over the last three years at least that I’ve been in this division, but they do not beat themselves.”