The St Louis Cardinals, led by slugger Albert Pujols, clobbered the Milwaukee Brewers 12-3 on Monday to level their best-of-seven National League Championship Series 1-1.
Three-times league MVP Pujols led the hit parade in Milwaukee, going four-for-five with a home run and three doubles, as the Cards shook off the sting of a 9-6 defeat in Sunday’s opener.
Pujols was coming off a sub-par day at the plate in the opener where he went one-for-four, grounding into a double play with runners on first and third and no outs late in the game.
Photo: Reuters
“Yesterday was a tough loss and I had an opportunity to contribute for my ball club and I didn’t come through,” Pujols said. “I just thank God that tonight I came through.”
Pujols drove in five of the first six St Louis runs, before the Cardinals put the outcome beyond doubt with four runs in the seventh inning. The Cardinals had 17 hits in all.
Power-hitting Pujols began the pounding in the first inning with a two-run homer off Brewers starter Shaun Marcum, who was tagged with the loss.
St Louis doubled their lead in the third when Pujols ripped a two-run double to center that scored pitcher Edwin Jackson and Jon Jay for a 4-0 advantage.
Second baseman Nick Punto interrupted the Pujols monopoly by knocking in a run with a single in the fourth, but Pujols got back to work in the fifth after Milwaukee’s Rickie Weeks had blasted a two-run homer that made it 5-2.
Pujols followed a double by Jay with an RBI-double into the gap in right and later made a decisive dash to the plate on a pitch that got behind Milwaukee catcher Jonathan Lucroy. He slid in safely to make it 7-2 and restore the five-run lead.
The Cardinals put the game out of reach with their four-run burst in the seventh that included another double from Pujols.
Milwaukee slugger Prince Fielder belted a solo shot in the eighth and St Louis third baseman David Freese homered in the ninth to finish the scoring.
St Louis lead-off hitter Rafael Furcal said the offensive explosion was not out of character for Pujols or the Cards.
“He’s one of the best players in the game,” the shortstop said.
“We got a pretty good team. We got three guys who can hit the ball out of the park any time,” he said, including Lance Berkman and Matt Holiday. “We got a pretty good offensive team. That’s why we’re here.”
St Louis reliever Lance Lynn, whose sole pitch of the game resulted in a double play with the bases loaded and one out in the fifth, was credited with the win.
The series shifts to St Louis today with Yovani Gallardo expected to start for the Brewers against Chris Carpenter.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but