ST. LOUIS (AP) — Albert Pujols hit his 684th homer and Tommy Edman drove in the tiebreaking run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to help the scuffling St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 on Sunday.
St. Louis had lost two straight and six of seven.
Kyle Schwarber hit his NL-leading 28th homer for the Phillies, who had won three in a row.
Pujols, who singled to start the go-ahead rally in the eighth, has 1,377 extra-base hits to tie Stan Musial for third place on the career list. The slugger's fifth homer of the season was a solo shot in the sixth that brought the Cardinals within 3-2.
They tied it in the seventh on Nolan Gorman's groundout.
Edman drove in pinch-runner Dylan Carlson with a short fly to center. Carlson was originally called out at the plate, but the play was overturned after a replay review.
Jordan Hicks (2-4) picked up the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Ryan Helsley got his seventh save.
Matt Vierling broke a 1-all tie with a run-scoring single in the fourth before Schwarber's homer an inning later put the Phillies in front 3-1.
Cardinals starter Andre Pallante allowed three runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.
Seranthony Dominguez (4-3) took the loss.
Lars Nootbaar broke the Cardinals' 19-inning scoreless stretch with an RBI single in the second.
Schwarber scored on a single by Nick Castellanos in the first.
Philadelphia shut out the Cardinals in the three previous meetings.
LOOKING FOR A CHANGE
St. Louis RHP Miles Mikolas decided to burn some sage in the outfield before the game in an effort to change the team’s luck. Mikolas says he deals in holistic medicinal healing and felt the move might help.
OFFENSIVE WOES
The bottom five hitters in the Cardinals' batting order — Corey Dickerson (.188), Pujols (.198), Lars Nootbaar (.158), Edmundo Sosa (.174) and Austin Romine (.150) — all entered hitting under .200.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: INF Brendan Donovan missed his second successive game with an illness. He was not at the game.
UP NEXT
Mikolas (5-7, 2.72 ERA) faces Philadelphia RHP Aaron Nola (5-6, 3.15) in the finale of the four-game series Monday. Mikolas has received zero run support in seven of 17 starts this season. Nola is 5-2 with a 2.19 ERA in eight career starts against St. Louis.
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