Pittsburgh Pirates vs St. Louis Cardinals Match Player Stats On Sep 10, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 10, 2017

ST. LOUIS -- Yadier Molina slammed a three-run homer and matched his career high with five RBIs to back eight shutout innings from Michael Wacha and lead the St. Louis Cardinals to a 7-0 win Sunday over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The win completed a sweep of the three-game series and was the ninth in their last 11 games for the Cardinals, who moved to a season-best seven games over .500. They kept pressure on the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Central and also on the Colorado Rockies in the wild-card race.

The Pirates fell 10 games under .500 for the first time since the end of the 2011 season.

After he drove in the first run of the game with a single in the first inning, Molina's 17th homer of the year increased the Cardinals' lead to 4-0 in the third. The two-out blast off Ivan Nova followed a walk to Matt Carpenter and a single by Paul DeJong, his second hit of the game.

Randal Grichuk hit his 20th homer of the year, a solo shot, to make it a 5-0 advantage in the fourth. Wacha's bases-loaded sacrifice fly, only his third RBI of the year, made it a 6-0 lead in the sixth and Molina capped his big day with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Molina tied his career high of five RBIs set on Sept. 17, 2010, against San Diego.

Wacha, who raised his record to 12-7, allowed just five hits, struck out seven and did not walk a batter in winning his third consecutive start. He only threw 95 pitches, 68 for strikes.

Wacha did not allow a runner past second base. David Freese doubled with one out in the second but was stranded, and Wacha gave up only two more singles, one an infield hit, before Freese singled with two outs in the seventh.

Nova was lifted for a pinch hitter after five innings and saw his record fall to 11-13. He has won just one of his last nine starts and has not won a road start since July 8 at Chicago.

NOTES: An MRI on Cardinals OF Dexter Fowler's left knee came back clean on Sunday but he will still miss at least a few games because of inflammation. Fowler was hurt trying to make a catch in Saturday night's game. ... Cardinals OF Tommy Pham has been bothered again by vision problems, which are worse during day games, and that kept him out of the lineup on Sunday. ... The Pirates purchased the contract of LHP Dan Runzler from Triple-A Indianapolis and transferred 2B Josh Harrison to the 60-day DL. With Indianapolis' season over, the Pirates also recalled RHPs Tyler Glasnow, Johnny Barbato and Edgar Santana, LHP Jack Leathersick and C Jacob Stallings.