Pujols homers in return to St. Louis; Cards beat Angels 4-2
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols took a curtain call for his adoring fans at Busch Stadium after homering against the Cardinals, but Marcell Ozuna connected to lead Dakota Hudson and St. Louis over the Los Angeles Angels 4-2 on Saturday.
Pujols hit his 13th home run, a solo drive in the seventh inning. He got a standing ovation as he rounded the bases and the cheers grew louder until Pujols emerged from the dugout and tipped his hat to the sellout crowd.
Ozuna hit his team-leading 20th homer of the season off Felix Peña in the sixth inning to make it 4-0 lead. Ozuna homered for the second straight day.
Hudson (6-3) gave up one run on five hits in a season-high 112-pitch stint. He struck out six and walked one.
Paul Goldschmidt had two hits for St. Louis, which has won five of seven.
Justin Upton also homered for the Angels, a solo shot in the eighth. Pena (5-2) started the third inning in relief of opener Noé Ramirez.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — C.J. Cron homered and singled in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning, and Minnesota beat Kansas City.
Miguel Sanó and Jake Cave also homered for the Twins, who blew a 3-0 lead in the eighth before pushing ahead for good in the 10th. Eddie Rosario’s double to deep right off Wily Peralta (2-3) scored Cave for a two-run cushion.
Trevor May (2-1) worked a scoreless ninth and Blake Parker retired the side in the 10th for his 10th save in 11 chances. AL Central-leading Minnesota has won two straight after losing four of its previous five.
Danny Duffy worked eight innings for the Royals, allowing three solo homers and three other hits, walking two and striking out four.
CHICAGO (AP) — Rookie slugger Pete Alonso hit his 26th homer to set the NL record for most homers before the All-Star Game as New York routed Chicago.
Alonso broke a tie with Los Angeles’ Cody Bellinger (2017). He’s still seven short of Mark McGwire’s major league record 33 accomplished in 1987.
Todd Frazier and Wilson Ramos also homered for the Mets, who won consecutive road games for the first time in over two months.
Zack Wheeler (6-5) allowed one run on five hits in seven innings. He retired 15 straight batters from the second through the sixth.
Alonso went 2 for 4 with a walk and tied Darryl Strawberry (1983) for the Mets’ rookie record for homers in a season.
Jeff McNeil went 2 for 4 with three RBI.
Jason Heyward went 3 for 4. Cubs starter Jose Quintana (4-7) was roughed up for nine runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Wilkin Castillo hit a go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning in his first game back in the majors in 10 years, lifting Miami over Philadelphia.
The Phillies have lost six in a row and 15 of 21.
Austin Brice (1-0) struck out two in a perfect sixth for the last-place Marlins, who’ve won three in a row. Wei-Yin Chen tossed 2 1/3 scoreless innings and José Quijada retired César Hernández on an infield popup for the final out with the bases loaded for his first save in his seventh big-league appearance.
Bryce Harper and Rhys Hoskins hit back-to-back homers for the Phillies. JT Riddle hit a solo shot for Miami.
Philadelphia’s Gabe Kapler was ejected for the first time in his managerial career for arguing after Scott Kingery struck out swinging in the fourth.
Phillies starter Vince Velasquez retired 15 of 16 batters, allowing Riddle’s homer and striking out five. The right-hander made a strong case to remain in the rotation.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Adam Frazier hit a tiebreaking, two-run single in the eighth inning and Pittsburgh beat San Diego.
It was 2-all when Starling Marte led off the eighth with a triple against reliever Craig Stammen (5-4). Josh Bell and Corey Dickerson walked to load the bases, and Frazier singled up the middle. Elias Diaz added on with an RBI single and pinch-hitter Jung Ho Kang had a sacrifice fly.
Kyle Crick (3-3) worked around a walk and a hit in the eighth. Felipe Vazquez faced just one batter to earn his 19th save of the season.
Manny Machado opened the scoring with a solo home run in the fourth inning, his 16th of the season the Padres. He also drove in Tatis with a single in the ninth.
Pinch-hitter Jose Osuna’s two-run homer in the fifth inning. It was his major league-high third pinch-hit home run of the season.
BOSTON (AP) — Freddy Galvis and Rowdy Tellez hit back-to-back homers to help Toronto rally from a six-run deficit, and Eric Sogard drew a four-pitch, bases-loaded walk to break an eighth-inning tie.
Boston scored five times in the second and led 6-0 after three before its bullpen blew a save for the 15th time in 31 chances. The Blue Jays trailed 6-1 before scoring four in the seventh on two homers and a wild pitch, then added three more in the eighth, when Matt Barnes (3-2) and Ryan Brasier combined to walk four straight batters with two outs.
Nick Kingham (3-1) pitched two hitless innings of relief for Toronto, which won for the second time in six games. Ken Giles pitching the ninth for his 12th save.
Xander Bogaerts tied an AL record with a double in his seventh straight game.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Matt Chapman homered in the third inning and doubled in the go-ahead run in the seventh, leading Oakland past Tampa Bay.
Ramón Laureano had two hits, was hit by pitches twice — including once with the bases loaded — and threw out a runner from center field for the A’s. Khris Davis singled and scored.
Ji-Man Choi hit his ninth home run and Joey Wendle had two hits for Tampa Bay, which has lost nine of 12.
Yusmeiro Petit (2-1) struck out all four batters he faced for the win. Liam Hendriks retired three batters for his second career save and first since 2017.
Mike Fiers allowed one run over six innings for Oakland. Fiers hit three batters, including Avasaíl García twice, and walked three.
Yonny Chirinos gave up two runs over six innings and had three strikeouts. Diego Castillo (1-6) took the loss.
SEATTLE (AP) — Jonathan Villar hit a three-run homer, Anthony Santander had a two-run shot and Baltimore ended a 10-game skid with a win over Seattle.
Andrew Cashner worked six strong innings for the Orioles, who snapped the eighth-longest losing streak in club history. Cashner (7-3) allowed two runs while scattering five hits and striking out three.
Tommy Milone (1-2) held the Orioles without a hit for the first three innings.
Domingo Santana finished 2 for 3 and scored three runs, including his 19th home run of the year for the Mariners, who had their three-game winning streak halted.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Yasmani Grandal led off for the first time in his career and homered in his opening at-bat to help Milwaukee snap a season-high five-game losing streak.
Grandal put the Brewers ahead 5-4 with an RBI double in the fourth. Two outs later, he scored on Lorenzo Cain’s bloop single that chased Reds starter Luis Castillo (7-2).
NL MVP Christian Yelich scored a run, but went 0 for 3 to end his career-high hitting streak and the longest in the majors at 18 games.
Matt Albers (4-2) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Josh Hader struck out four of the final six outs for his 18th save.
Castillo allowed six runs, four earned, on five hits with five walks and six strikeouts. The loss snapped the Reds’ season-high six-game winning streak.
Eugenio Suárez hit his 16th home run of the season in the third and added a run-scoring groundout in the fifth off Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacín. Yasiel Puig hit his 16th homer of the season.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Aaron Civale dazzled in his major league debut, striking out the side to begin the game and allowing just two infield hits over six innings in Cleveland’s win over Detroit.
Civale struck out six, walked three and worked out of a sixth-inning jam.
José Ramirez had an RBI triple in the second while Oscar Mercado added an RBI single in the third.
Tigers starter Spencer Turnbull (3-7) allowed two runs in six innings.
Brad Hand — the Indians‘ fourth reliever — allowed two hits in the ninth, but picked up his 22nd save in 22 chances.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected by plate umpire Roberto Ortiz in the fourth inning. It was his sixth ejection of the season.
