Pedro Alvarez, who homered in that 19 inning marathon game for the Pirates, hit two more last night against the Cardinals and Josh Harrison bowled over Yadier Molina ending his night with head and neck soreness as the Cardinals were beat 9-0 by the never say die Pirates.
Harrison tried to score from second, in the second inning, on Jose Tabata’s single to right with two outs and as Molina had the ball in his hands, Harrison lowered his left shoulder, but hit Yadi high in the head. Molina held onto the ball to end the inning, but left the game.
“There was no way to slide around him,” Harrison said. “I felt my only way was to go through him.”
Molina complained of a headache afterward.
“I never saw the guy coming,” Molina said. “I was concentrating on catching the ball. I never saw him coming, but the real pain was in my head. I don’t know if he was targeting my head or not.”
The play sparked the Pirates, who have struggled since taking two out of three in St. Louis. Alvarez hit a two-run homer in the third to give the Pirates a lead, added an RBI double in the fourth then hit a 469-foot blast to center in the sixth.
James McDonald (12-6), gave up two hits in seven innings, walking one and striking out six to beat the Cardinals and Jake Westbrook for the second time in two weeks.