ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols hit a two-run single and Corey Dickerson had a grand slam in a six-run first inning to help the NL Central champion St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 13-3 on Saturday night. Pujols singled to left with the bases loaded in the first inning driving in Brendan Donovan and Lars Nootbaar to give St. Louis a 2-0 lead. Two batters later, Dickerson lined an 0-1 fastball 433 feet into the right-center field bleachers for his sixth home run of the season and his second career grand slam to increase the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0. Jordan Montgomery (9-6) allowed two runs on four hits in six innings and struck out five batters after losing his previous three starts.
CHICAGO (AP) — Seiya Suzuki hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh inning, and the Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 for their sixth straight win. Suzuki’s two-out drive to left-center against Derek Law was Chicago’s first hit since the fourth and the last of three on the day. But the Cubs also had six walks and made the most of a strong performance by their bullpen. Cincinnati dropped its fifth straight game and 18th in its last 22 overall. It needs to win three of its last four — all against Chicago — to avoid the franchise’s second 100-loss season.
Elsewhere in the MLB:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first National League team in more than a century to win 110 regular-season games, taking advantage of 10 walks to rally past the Colorado Rockies 6-4. Cody Bellinger had three hits and two RBIs for the NL West champions, who are 110-48 after overcoming a three-run deficit with the help of six free passes in the seventh inning. Honus Wagner and the 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates were the previous NL club to win 110 games. The last big league team to accomplish the feat was the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won 116.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Shohei Ohtani has agreed to a $30 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels for the 2023 season. That’s the two-way superstar’s final year of arbitration eligibility before free agency. The Halos avoided a potentially complicated arbitration case with the 2021 AL MVP. Ohtani’s deal is fully guaranteed with no other provisions. The contract is the largest ever given to an arbitration-eligible player, surpassing the $27 million given to Mookie Betts by the Boston Red Sox in January 2020, a month before he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
ATLANTA (AP) — Dansby Swanson and Matt Olson homered off Max Scherzer, lifting the Atlanta Braves to a crucial 4-2 victory over the New York Mets and a one-game lead in the NL East. The defending World Series champions beat aces Jacob deGrom and Scherzer on consecutive nights to take their biggest lead of the season in the division. New York faces its biggest deficit of the season with four games remaining. Atlanta will try for a three-game sweep Sunday night, with the winner earning the season-series tiebreaker between the teams. Even though both teams are headed to the postseason, that’s important because the NL East champion gets a first-round bye in the playoffs.
