Pujols hits No. 400 as Cardinals lose in 13 innings
Albert Pujols reached a career milestone with home run No. 400, but it was not enough to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Washington Nationals.
The Nationals won a marathon game against the Cardinals when Ian Desmond hit an RBI single in the 13th inning to give Washington the win over the Cardinals 11-10.
Chris Carpenter matched a season high giving up 10 hits to the Nationals in six innings of work. The six runs the Nationals scored (three earned) were the most since 3 July when Carpenter gave up eight runs to the Milwaukee Brewers in three innings.
Pujols hit home run No. 400 in the fourth inning as part of a four run inning that put the Cardinals up 5-3 at the time. He became the 47th player in the history of the game to reach the milestone and third youngest to do so.
“It’s a special milestone,” Pujols said, “but I don’t play for numbers.”
After getting out to a 5-3 lead at the end of four innings, the offense died for the Cardinals as the Nationals heated up. Over the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings the Nationals' offense scored five runs to take an 8-5 lead going into the eighth inning.
St. Louis scored one in the eighth to close the gap to 8-6, but then came alive in the ninth scoring four runs off Washington reliever Drew Storen to retake the lead for the Cardinals. That lead was quickly erased in the ninth when closer Ryan Franklin gave up a two-run home run to Roger Bernadina to send the game to extra innings.
Pujols could end up missing the game on Friday after tweaking his ankle reaching for a foul ball during the 10th inning. He stayed in the game Thursday night, but said that it was pretty sore after the game.
The loss dropped the Cardinals to 68-57 on the season. With the Cincinnati Reds idle, the Cardinals deficit in the NL Central grew to four games and a game and a half behind the San Francisco Giants in the wild card race.
Jaime Garcia will look to stop the losing streak at three for the Cardinals when he takes the mound Friday night in the second game of a four game series with the Nationals; Scott Olsen is scheduled to pitch for the Nationals.
St. Louis leads the season series with the Nationals 2-1.
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