Cardinals historic home run streak ends in costly loss to Pirates

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look at the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.

The St. Louis Cardinals missed an opportunity to make history on Wednesday night. In the process, they lost ground in the National League wild-card race, falling into a virtual tie with the New York Mets for the second spot after losing to Pittsburgh, 4-3.

The Cardinals entered the game having homered in a NL-record tying 25 games. That’s pretty amazing for a team that hit only 137 home runs combined last season, good for the sixth fewest in MLB. Of course, that lack of power didn’t stop them from winning a third straight division championship. In fact, the Cardinals finished the season with a league-best 100 wins.

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This season though, the Cardinals have been power dependent at times, including Tuesday’s win when they hit three in the ninth inning to complete a comeback win. Overall, they’ve hit a whopping 201 homers in 2016, second only to the other-worldly Baltimore Orioles and their 219 homers.

Oh, how the Cardinals could have used just one on Wednesday. Especially after Jung Ho Kang connected for a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning. The one-run loss dropped St. Louis to 73-65 on the season. Not bad, but a far cry from 2015 and still 15 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs.

The wild-card is their only hope, and it looks like they’ll need all the power they can muster to separate themselves from the pack.

TOP PERFORMERS

Jonathan Villar: Milwaukee’s third baseman has been making waves all season with his baserunning. In Wednesday’s 2-1 win against the Cubs, it was two swings of his bat that made the difference. Villar hit a pair of solo home runs to represent Milwaukee’s only two runs. He hit the first while batting right-handed against Mike Montgomery in the fourth inning. His second came batting left-handed against Joe Smith in the ninth. That feat had not been accomplished by a Brewers player since 1999.

That wasn’t all though. Villar has 15 homers on the season, which puts himself in another rare category.

The rebuilding Brewers are looking for new cornerstones. It appears they’ve found one in Villar.

Adam Lind: It was the Adam Lind Show early in Seattle’s 8-3 win against Texas. The left-handed hitting slugger capped the Mariners five-run first inning with a grand slam. Two innings later, he added a solo blast. Both home runs came at the expense of Texas starter A.J. Griffin. Lind now has 20 homers on the season, giving him six seasons of at least 20 during his career.

Jharel Cotton: Acquired from the Dodgers in the Aug. 1 trade involving Rich Hill and Josh Reddick, the 24-year-old right-hander took the hill for his major-league debut on Wednesday. It could not have gone better. Cotton earned the win, allowing just one run on two hits over 6 1/3 innings in a 4-1 victory against the Angels. He walked two and struck out three with his lone mistake coming on a C.J. Cron home run.

Travis Shaw: Back in the lineup thanks to Yoan Moncada’s string of seven straight strikeouts, Shaw did the heavy lifting in Boston’s 7-2 win in San Diego. Shaw opened Boston’s scoring with a two-run homer in the second inning. He later added a run-scoring single to give him eight RBIs over his last two starts. Keep in mind, he only drove in six total in August. With the win, Boston now has first place in the AL East all to itself.

MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT

The Rays and Kevin Kiermaier beat the Orioles at their own game on Wednesday afternoon. In the first inning, Kiermaier launched a monstrous home run that traveled an estimated 425 feet and bounced off the right field scoreboard at Tropicana Field. Quite an impressive feat of strength for a guy more known for defense. Kiermaier also added a two-run single to help Tampa Bay pull off a 7-6 win.

REST OF SCOREBOARD

Nationals 5, Braves 4: After an hour-long rain delay, an injury to Stephen Strasburg and 11 innings, the Nationals completed their three-game sweep of the Braves on Wilson Ramos’ walk-off single.

Mets 6, Reds 3: Like it or not, Jose Reyes has been a good get for New York. He homered and stole a base for the second straight game Wednesday, becoming the first player in MLB to achieve that this season. Overall, he’s hitting .287 atop the Mets lineup.

White Sox 7, Tigers 4: Chicago rallied for four runs in the eighth inning to take a big series away from Detroit.

Yankees 2, Blue Jays 0: New York completes a three-game sweep.thanks to five scoreless innings from Bryan Mitchell in his 2016 debut. With Dellin Betances unavailable, Luis Severino contributed three scoreless innings of relief while Tyler Clippard notched the save with a perfect ninth.

Marlins 6, Phillies 0: Miami used five pitchers to complete the shutout. Starter Andrew Cashner pitched 5 1/3 innings, allowing four hits and two walks while striking out nine.

Indians 6, Astros 5: Cleveland scored four in the decisive fifth inning. The inning started with a Mike Napoli two-run homer and was capped by Brandon Guyer’s two-run double.

Twins 6, Royals 5: Breaking news: Brian Dozier did not homer on Wednesday. Robbie Grossman and Byron Buxton did though to help Minnesota avoid a three-game sweep.

Rockies 6, Giants 5: Bruce Bochy used nine pitchers in nine innings, including Joe Nathan in a save situation. It ultimately backfired as Colorado rallied from a 5-3 deficit in the ninth.

Dodgers 3, Diamondbacks 1: The Dodgers got a home run from Yasiel Puig as they opened up their NL West lead to five full games over the Giants.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at bigleaguestew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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