Cincinnati Reds’ Spencer Steer dives safely back to first as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols (5) covers during the third inning of a baseball game Sunday, in St. Louis.
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Stuart Fairchild homered and Luis Cessa tossed five shutout innings as the Cincinnati Reds shut down Albert Pujols and the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 on Sunday.
The 42-year-old Pujols, who entered the game with 698 home runs, went 0 for 4. He received a lengthy standing ovation from the sellout crowd in each of his plate appearances.
Pujols sits fourth on the all-time list behind Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755) and Babe Ruth (714). He has 19 home runs this season, and his last round-tripper came in a 6-5 win over the Reds on Friday. The Cardinals have 14 games remaining.
Cessa got Pujols to ground out and fly out in two chances against his childhood idol.
“He’s a superstar,” Cessa said. “I grew up wanting to be him on PlayStation. I hope he hits 700 home runs — just not off me.”
Fairchild hit his fifth home run of the season while making the second of rare back-to-back starts. He also enjoyed the crowd energy and theatre that occurred every time Pujols came to the plate.
“It’s great to be able to play on the same field with a guy who is making history,” Fairchild said. “Being able to witness that is pretty cool.”
St. Louis, which managed just two hits, had a three-game winning streak snapped.
“I don’t think we panicked at all,” said St. Louis infielder Paul DeJong, who had one of the Cardinals’ two hits. “We’ve just got to take good at-bats and win the situation.”
The Cardinals hold a nine game lead over Milwaukee in the NL Central.
Fairchild hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Jordan Montgomery, who allowed three runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings. Montgomery (8-5) struck out nine and walked two.
Cessa (4-3) gave up just one hit, a single by DeJong in the third.
Buck Farmer recorded his second save in three opportunities, and induced Pujols to pop out to start the ninth inning.
Spencer Steer added a run-scoring hit for the Reds, who had lost nine of their previous 10 games,
Cincinnati did not allow an earned run over the final 24 2/3 innings of the five games series and won two games in the set.
“We pitched them really tough the whole series,” Cincinnati manager David Bell said. “We just didn’t survive, we thrived.”
The Cardinals rested regulars Paul Goldschmidt and Tommy Edman before heading out on a 10-day, eight game road trip.
YANKEES 12, BREWERS 8
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Aaron Judge hit his 58th and 59th home runs of the season to move within two of Roger Maris’ American League record with 16 games remaining and lead the New York Yankees over the Milwaukee Brewers 12-8 on Sunday.
Judge added a two-run double in the ninth as part of a four-hit day for New York (88-58), which hit five homers and avoided a three-game sweep. The Yankees opened a 5 1/2-game lead over second-place Toronto in the AL East.
Judge’s 11th multihomer game tied the season record set by Detroit’s Hank Greenberg 1938 and matched by the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in 1998.
Seeking a Triple Crown, Judge leads the major leagues in homers and with 127 RBIs. His .3162 batting average is just behind AL leader Luis Arraez of Minnesota at .317 and Boston’s Xander Bogaerts at .3164.
Milwaukee (78-68) dropped two games behind San Diego, which played later Sunday, for the third and last NL wild card.
Judge’s homers totaled 857 feet. His first came on a sinker from Jason Alexander with a 2-0 count in the third inning. The 414-foot, opposite-field drive into the right field second deck left the bat at 112 mph.
Then in the seventh against Luis Perdomo, Judge pulled a slider with a 1-2 count for a 443-foot shot to left.
Judge also walked against Hoby Milner (3-3) leading off a four-run fifth as the Yankees went ahead to stay at 7-4.
Judge, had not homered in his previous three games since going deep twice at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber is a distant second in the major leagues with 39 homers.
Maris hit 61 homers for the Yankees in 1961, one more than Babe Ruth in 1927.
WHITE SOX 11, TIGERS 5
DETROIT (AP) — Andrew Vaughn hit his first career grand slam, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers 11-5 on Sunday.
Eloy Jiménez and AJ Pollock also connected as Chicago won for the third time in four games. Jiménez finished with three hits and three RBIs, and Gavin Sheets had two hits and two RBIs.
“This road trip has been very driven in the right direction,” Chicago right-hander Vince Velasquez said. “We’re taking the right steps to do some damage against Cleveland at home.”
The White Sox are trying to catch the AL Central-leading Guardians, but they are running out of time. They trail Cleveland by 3 1/2 games after the Guardians lost 3-0 to Minnesota.
Chicago hosts Cleveland on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game series.
“It’s September — everybody’s tired, everybody’s legs are hurting and bodies are sore,” Vaughn said. “But we just have to give it our all, every day, no matter what you’ve got.”
The White Sox improved to 12-4 against the last-place Tigers in the season series. The teams play again in Chicago next weekend.
The reigning AL Central champions grabbed control with five runs in the fifth. Sheets snapped a tie with a bases-loaded walk against Drew Hutchison (2-9), and Vaughn made it 7-2 when he drove a 1-2 slider from James Foley deep to left-center for his team-high 17th homer.
“That (home run) was big,” White Sox acting manager Miguel Cairo said. “With a short-handed bullpen, it was nice to put up a big number right away and give a breather to the bullpen.”
The White Sox (76-71) have recorded 31 homers in their last 19 games. They are 27-5 when they hit at least two homers.
