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Alvarez Stays Hot, Pirates Top Cardinals 5-0

Sports

August 30th, 2012 by Ric Hanson

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pedro Alvarez stayed hot, blasting his 26th homer of the season and driving in three runs as the Pittsburgh Pirates rolled to a 5-0 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday night. The third baseman — who hit two homers on Tuesday — continued his season-long dominance of the Cardinals. His three-run shot in the third gave him seven home runs and 23 RBI in 15 games against St. Louis this year as Pittsburgh moved within one game of the NL’s second wild card spot. Wandy Rodriguez (9-13) worked six tidy innings for Pittsburgh to pick up his first victory as a starter since being acquired in a trade last month. Rodriguez walked three and struck out three while helping the Pirates shut out the Cardinals for the second straight night. Joe Kelly (4-6) battled control problems during five rocky innings, giving up five runs on eight hits.

The St. Louis Cardinals held catcher Yadier Molina out of the lineup on Wednesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates a day after injuring his back, neck and shoulder in a violent home plate collision with Pittsburgh second baseman Josh Harrison. Molina left Tuesday night’s 9-0 loss at the end of the second inning after Harrison bowled him over while trying to score from second on a single to right field by Jose Tabata. Harrison’s left shoulder slammed into Molina’s helmet, sending Molina tumbling to the ground. Tony Cruz caught the rest of the game and started in place of Molina on Wednesday. The team also recalled catcher Bryan Anderson from Triple-A Memphis as insurance. Molina is listed as day-to-day. The Cardinals travel to Washington to begin a four-game series today (Thursday).