Coming off a four-hit shutout of the Reds on August 31, Nolasco retired the first 16 A’s in order, and he took a shutout into the eighth inning. “The home run totals are what they are”. If the Pirates don’t win the next two against the Cardinals, they can basically kiss their playoff hopes goodbye.
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“We’ve got a team that I think the best way to describe it is a unsafe team”, Carpenter said. “I don’t care about homers”. St. Louis has a homer in 25 consecutive games, tying the San Diego Padres for the longest streak this season. What followed was a little dash of history and the most thunderous reversal the Cardinals have had this season.
Andrew McCutchen and Adam Frazier hit home runs for the Pirates, who have been outscored 47-22 during their current slide.
The Cards lead 4-0 after two innings against the Pirates, who entered the day 4 ½ games behind the Cards for that second spot. It remains a three-team pile-up for the two wild-card spots, though. Yadier Molina doubled, Grichuk sent a long drive to the seats in left to put St. Louis in front and Peralta completed Watson’s implosion by depositing a 2-0 offering into the right-field seats.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny had such a good time watching his club produce on offense Monday that the almost 3 1/2-hour game flew by. Carpenter was leading the National League with a.988 OPS before he strained a right oblique muscle on July 6. “Sometimes you just don’t play as well as you need to play to win a game”. “I probably won’t be over that until next season”.
“We never quit, that’s for sure”, said Molina, whose grand slam helped build the early lead.
Matheny predicted the Cardinals would have more power this season in spring training, despite scant evidence at the time.
Yankees 7, Blue Jays 6 – At New York: Brett Gardner made a leaping catch at the top of the left-field wall on Justin Smoak’s bases-loaded drive for the final out, and New York held on during a nervy ninth inning to beat Toronto.
Matt Adams and Jedd Gyrko each hit homeruns in the victroy.
“What’d we hit tonight, five?” “We just have to keep going”.
Marwin Gonzalez’s three-run home run off Corey Kluber in the second inning was the difference as Houston beat Cleveland at Progressive Field. At first, they were line-outs.
YANKEES 5, BLUE JAYS 3 Jacoby Ellsbury overcame a first-inning deficit against R.A. Dickey with a two-run home run on the knuckleballer’s third pitch of the game, then added an RBI single to lead host NY over Toronto. “It’s part of the maturation process of being in the game”. Matheny defended the double switch by saying he was intent on getting two innings out of Bowman. The home run by Gonzalez and an RBI triple by Alex Bregman accounted for all of the Astros’ runs.
The Cardinals’ bullpen, like that of a lot of teams’ at this time of year, is exhausted.
Nine of the Rangers’ 15 hits went for extra bases, including home runs from Jonathan Lucroy and Elvis Andrus. Mayers had been torched in his only previous major-league appearance, and the Cardinals promoted him Tuesday with the idea he might leave the season with a “better taste” for the majors. There was one out; neither Moss nor Adams run well, making an inning-ending double play possible. The defense committed two errors and looked very lackluster. The Colorado loss overshadowed a solid outing from former OR standout Tyler Anderson, who threw 7 1/3 crisp innings, allowing two runs and six hits.
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Didi Gregorius hit the game-tying triple and scored the go-ahead run on Starlin Castro’s sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as NY held on for a victory over Toronto. Molina sliced his grand slam to right field off Ryan Vogelsong.
