ST. LOUIS — On a strange night at Busch Stadium, struggling starter Jaime Garcia got an early hook, his replacement Alex Reyes couldn’t find the plate but pitched four scoreless innings and the Cardinals got two two-run homers, both from players who hadn’t done much lately, in a 4-2 win over the Cubs on Tuesday night.
The win allowed the Cardinals to keep pace with the Mets, who blew a two-run lead in the ninth but then scored in the 10th to win, who are a half-game ahead of them in the race for the second NL wild-card spot. It also means that the Cubs won’t be able to clinch the Central Division title on Wednesday at Busch. The Cardinals pulled back to with 16 games of the Cubs.
Garcia had lost his last four starts and has not looked particularly good lately, but the Cardinals chose to stay with him. But that commitment apparently is not written in ink. When the Cubs loaded the bases with two outs in the second and were already up 2-0, manager Mike Matheny brought the earliest hook of Garcia’s career.
In came Reyes, the likely heir if Garcia’s spot in the rotation is gone, who got out of that jam and then pitched four more scoreless innings. Uneventful, though, they were not. Reyes walked two and with a wild pitch had runners on second and third with one out in the third but got out of the jam. He walked the bases loaded in the fourth but got out of that one too. He allowed just one hit, a single to Kris Bryant in the sixth. His line: one hit, six walks, four strikeouts.
The home runs came from shortstop Aledmys Diaz, making his first start since fracturing his thumb on July 31, who went deep in the second, and Brandon Moss, who hasn’t been injured but might as well have been. Moss came into the game having one hit in his past 41 at-bats. He singled before Diaz’s home run in the second, walked in the fourth and then homered in the sixth. It was his 26th home run of the season, but his first since Aug. 25.
After Reyes was done, the Cardinals got two scoreless innings from reliever Matt Bowman and then Kevin Siegrist came on to get the save, his second of the season. That means that Seung Hwan Oh, the team’s closer, is apparently still not available.
O’s bash way to tie for top AL Wild Card
BOSTON — J.J. Hardy, Nolan Reimold and Jonathan Schop homered and the Baltimore Orioles beat Boston 6-3 Tuesday night to pull within two games of the AL East-leading Red Sox.
The Orioles also tied Toronto for the wild-card lead.
Dylan Bundy (9-5) gave up three runs over 5 1/3 innings. Zach Britton pitched a scoreless ninth for his 42nd save.
Xander Bogaerts homered for Boston, which had won five of six.
Drew Pomeranz (10-12) gave up five runs and four hits in two-plus innings.
Rivera’s home run lifts Mets past Nationals in 10 innings
WASHINGTON — T.J. Rivera hit his first major league home run, connecting for the Mets in the 10th off Washington closer Mark Melancon.
New York has won eight of 10 and is a half-game ahead of St. Louis for the second NL wild card.
Rivera drove in three runs. His shot off Melancon (2-2) helped snap the Nationals’ four-game winning streak.
Rangers’ Beltre belts 425-foot homer from one knee
From one knee, Adrian Beltre cleared the Crawford Boxes.
The Rangers slugger dropped down to get to Brad Peacock’s pitch and crushed his 30th home run of the season from a kneel Tuesday night, giving Texas a 1-0 lead over the Houston Astros in the second inning.
MLB.com’s Statcast estimated the homer would have traveled 425 feet if it didn’t clank off the wall beyond the seats above the left-field wall.
This wasn’t Beltre’s first homer from one knee, including when he dirtied his pant leg while homering in Game 5 of the 2011 World Series.
It was the 443rd homer of Beltre’s career, and this is his fifth season with 30 or more homers.