Albert Pujols went 3-for-4 and hit his 684th career home run as the host St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 Sunday.
Tommy Edman hit the decisive sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as the Cardinals rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win for just the second time in eight games.
Cardinals starting pitcher Andre Pallante allowed three runs on nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. Reliever Jordan Hicks (2-4) threw a scoreless eighth inning to earn the victory and Ryan Helsley closed out the ninth for his seventh save.
The Phillies opened with Nick Nelson as the first of five pitchers. He allowed one run on three hits and a walk in two innings.
Jeurys Familia threw a scoreless inning, Cristopher Sanchez allowed two runs on two hits and a walk in three innings, Andrew Bellatti got three outs, and Seranthony Dominguez (4-3) allowed the eighth-inning run to take the loss.
The Phillies took a quick 1-0 lead. Kyle Schwarber led off the game with an infield single, then Rhys Hoskins and Nick Castellanos hit singles to get him home.
After getting shut out for the first 19 innings of this series, the Cardinals tied the game 1-1 in the second inning. Nolan Arenado hit a leadoff single and Pujols and Lars Nootbaar added one-out singles to score Arenado.
The Phillies moved ahead 2-1 in the fourth on consecutive two-out singles by Alec Bohm, Bryson Stott and Matt Vierling. Schwarber made it 3-1 in the fifth inning with a solo homer.
Pujols cut Philadelphia’s lead to 3-2 with his sixth-inning homer 409 feet to center. It was also his 1,377th extra-base hit — tying him with Cardinals legend Stan Musial for third on baseball’s all-time list.
The Cardinals tied the game 3-3 in the seventh inning. Austin Romine hit a leadoff single, Edman followed with a double and Nolan Gorman hit a run-scoring grounder.
Pujols hit a leadoff single in the eighth, Edmundo Sosa hit a one-out single and pinch-hitter Paul Goldschmidt walked to set the stage for Edman’s winning sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media