If you go to enough baseball games, you will see something you have never seen before. In the St. Louis Cardinals 13-4 win, Albert Pujols home run was one of them.
On this night it was Albert Pujols hitting a ball out of Great American Ball Park. That's not it, he's done that 21 times now since the building opened in 2003. It was the Cardinal great's 15th home run of the season, 694th of his career. It came off Ross Detwiler, who infamously became the 450th different pitcher to be victimized by Albert "The Great", that is one more pitcher than Barry Bonds clobbered. Former Red and current Cubs' broadcaster Ryan Dempster is in Pujols book eight times.
Detwiler grew up in St. Louis watching Pujols play.
"Obviously, his career speaks for itself," Detwiler said. "All the numbers are better than any thing I've seen in person. I was pretty unbelievable. He's been so good for so long. The ball jumps off his bat quite a bit."
The Reds' losing pitchers faster than they are losing games signed Chase Anderson to start the game. Anderson has been in the minor leagues all season. He had ties to the Bell family as the Reds' manager's brother Mike, was the director of Arizona's player development when Anderson broke into the big leagues.
Anderson opted out of his minor league contract and has only pitched two innings in the last month.
"I felt good. My velo was right there," Anderson said.
Tyler O'Neil took his 11th home run into the second deck in left field after Anderson had an easy first inning. Pujols and Corey Dickerson hit singles. Catcher Andrew Knizner walked to load the bases Tommy Edman doubled two runners home.
"It all started with O'Neil," Anderson said. "It was an off speed pitch. It wasn't a bad pitch. I think it was execution. I feel like I still can. I just have to perform and show that I can still do it."
Bell took Anderson out in favor of Detwiler. Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan singled before Detwiler struck out Triple Crown threat Paul Goldschmidt out and popped up Nolan Arenado.
Pujols homer made the score 8-0.
Cardinal starter Miles Mikolas was cruising as his teammates built the lead, allowing singles to Donavan Solano and Kyle Farmer in the first four innings.
That changed in the fifth.
TJ Friedl hit a long home run to right, his third. One out later Stuart Fairchild hit his fourth home run of the season into the upper deck in left. Mikolas walked r Moran. Rookie catcher Chuckie Robinson belted his first career home run also in the left field upper deck.
"It was awesome, man. I hit it and knew it was out," said Robinson, who gave the ball to his mother after the game. "When I hit it I kind of blanked out a little bit and the boys in the dugout were really excited for me, which was cool."
"I was in an 0-2 hole. I had to battle back for that one. I got a pitch to hit. A family from my hometown caught the ball, Ironically," said Robinson who hails from Danville, Illinois. "The were on the way to bring the ball back to my mom. It was her first game to see me play since, I've been up. They brought the ball to my mom. It was an awesome experience."
After Jonathan India extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a single. Chris Stratton was summoned from the Cardinal bullpen. He walked Jake Fraley but Farmer struck out and Solano grounded to Pujols at first.
The Cardinals got the all four runs back with the aid of an error. Reiver Sanmartin walked Nottbaar to open the inning. Donovan hit a potential double play ball to Solano. The ball slipped from his hands and put runners at second and third. Goldschmidt grounded Hunter Strickland's first pitch right to Farmer at short. Arendado followed with a two-run double in front of O'Neil's second home run of the game.
After a rain delay of 36 minutes, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol emptied his bench over the final three innings.
The Reds manager David Bell gave infielder Alejo Lopez the ball to get the Cardinals out in the ninth. Corey Dickerson hit his fifth home run but Lopez got three quick outs to finish the inning.
The lost put the Reds' tragic number at 11. Any comibination of Cardinal wins or Reds losses that total 11 eliminates the Reds from NL Central Division contention.
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