Pujols and Molina star in crushing Cardinals win over Pirates

It was a blast from the past for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 18-4 blowout win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, with future Hall-of-Famers Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina the stars of the show.

It became uncompetitive early on after the Cardinals piled on seven runs across the opening two frames, and another four in the fourth.

Up 11-0 in the fifth inning, Pujols was brought in as a pinch-hitter, and he crushed the second pitch he saw for a 425-foot home run to left-field.

Pujols’ day would not end there as he came up to bat again in the ninth inning with two runners on base, and he launched another home run to make it 18-0.

Not wanting to waste the performance of a real pitcher to close the game, the Cardinals brought in 39-year-old catcher Molina to handle the final inning. It was his first career pitching appearance.

He would give up four runs, including a home run to the very first batter he faced, before getting his third out from a deep fly-ball to center-field.

Both Pujols and Molina are members of the Cardinals only two World Series-winning teams since 1982 – in 2006 and 2011 – and will likely have their numbers retired by the club when they hang up their cleats.

All 10 Cardinals players to take an at-bat finished with at least one hit, while Tommy Edman, Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan collected three hits each.

After starting pitcher Steven Matz was withdrawn due to injury before retiring a single batter, Angel Rondon came in with a terrific performance out of the Cardinals bullpen, pitching five scoreless innings, striking out four while giving up just one hit and three walks for his first career win.

Dodgers error gifts Phillies the win

The Los Angeles Dodgers needed just one more out to secure a 3-2 extra innings win against the Philadelphia Phillies, but could not field a routine ground-ball.

After Trea Turner’s base hit gave the Dodgers a lead in the top of the 10th inning, Evan Phillips was able to get two Phillies out, with runners on second and third.

While a base hit would have won it, Alec Bohm instead hit one along the ground straight to second-baseman Max Muncy, but as he fumbled the ball and was too late to get the out at first base, both runners came home to win the game.

White Sox wake up late

Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Michael Kopech had a perfect game through five innings, but his side needed a late rally to pull out a 5-0 win in the second game of their double-header against the New York Yankees.

Despite Kopech’s heroics – finishing his career-long start with seven full innings pitched for six strikeouts, one hit and two walks – the scores were tied at 0-0 heading into the eighth frame.

Yankees set-up pitcher Jonathan Losaiga had no luck getting through the inning unscathed, giving up four hits and two earned runs before getting pulled with runners still on first and second. Miguel Castro could not get the Yankees out of trouble, giving up a three-run homer to Tim Anderson as the very next batter.