Saint Louis 2; Cubs 0
Albert Pujols hit home run 695 in the eighth inning and Miles Mikolas pitched eight scoreless innings to lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Sunday.
Pujols hit a two-run pinch-hit homer off reliever Brandon Hughes (2-2).
A future Hall of Famer, Pujols trails only Barry Bonds (762), Hank Aaron (755), Babe Ruth (714) and Alex Rodriguez (696) on the all-time list.
Puols has seven pinch-hit home runs in his career and two this season. He has homered against 451 different pitchers, an all-time record.
St. Louis has won four in a row, 18 of its last 20 games at home and is 24 games over .500 at a season-best 79-55. It was the Cardinals’ eighth series sweep of the season.
Mikolas (11-10) allowed two hits. He struck out three and walked one. Ryan Helsley earned his 13th save in 17 chances.
Chicago starter Marcus Stroman allowed four hits in seven shutout innings. He struck out five and didn’t walk a batter in a 98-pitch season.
Twins 5;
Chicago 1
Chicago.
Carlos Correa homered for Minnesota and Dylan Bundy closed out Chicago once again. And the Twins beat the White Sox 5-1.
Jose Miranda added a two-run double in the ninth inning as Minnesota salvaged the weekend’s series finale. Max Kepler scored on a wild pitch by Kendall Graveman in the eighth, and Jhoan Duran put in some impressive relief work.
The Twins finished with 12 hits. Correa connected in the fifth, hitting a two-run homer to left-center off Lucas Giolito (10-9) for his 16th homer. Bundy (8-6) pitched five scoreless innings to improve to 7-0 with a 3.15 ERA in 10 career appearances against the White Sox.
Elvis Andrus had two of Chicago’s seven hits. Giolito pitched five innings for Chicago, allowing six hits while finishing with five strikeouts and two walks.
