PITTSBURGH (AP) — Joshua Palacios hit a three-run home run and had a career-high five RBIs to help the Pittsburgh Pirates beat St. Louis 11-1 on Monday night, sending the last-place Cardinals to their fifth loss in six games.
Palacios’ drive down the right-field line capped a four-run fourth inning to put the Pirates ahead 8-0 and chased starter Drew Rom, who was making his major-league debut. Palacios capped the scoring with a two-run double in the eighth.
Palacios also made a nice sliding catch of Jose Fermin’s line drive in left field to end the game.
Monday marked the first time Palacios faced his brother, Cardinals infielder/outfielder Richie Palacios, in the major leagues. Richie had a pinch-hit single in the ninth.
The brothers were winter ball teammates in Puerto Rico with Mayaguez after last season and played together for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic in March.
“We’ll definitely remember that forever,” Joshua Palacios said. “Today was like a bucket list thing. We always wanted to play against each other in the big leagues. It was a blessing that it happened. It’s a very competitive household. I had to set the tone today.”
Palacios, who grew up in Brooklyn, estimated he had 45-50 family members in the stands.
“Thank God this wasn’t New York City, or I might have gone broke,” Palacios said with a smile.
The Cardinals remained in fifth place in the NL Central, falling 1 1/2 games behind the Pirates. St. Louis hasn’t finished in last place since 1990.
The Pirates and Cardinals met as the bottom two teams in the division for the first time since 1995.
Connor Joe tripled three times and rookie Endy Rodriguez also had three hits for the Pirates. Andrew McCutchen, Palacios and Alika Williams added two hits each as Pittsburgh finished with 16.
Bailey Falter (1-7) allowed one run in six innings of bulk relief for his first win since last Sept. 30 while pitching for Philadelphia against Washington. The left-hander also tied a career high with eight strikeouts.
“Actually, I wasn’t feeling the greatest when I woke up this morning,” Falter said. “So, I was just trying my hardest to grind through the whole entire game or whenever they took the ball out of my hand.”
Thomas Hatch worked three scoreless innings as the opener for Pittsburgh, which had lost five of its previous seven games. Andrew Knizner’s leadoff homer in the fifth inning, the backup catcher’s 10th of the season, accounted for the Cardinals’ lone run.
Rom (0-1) was recalled from Triple-A Memphis prior to the game, less than three weeks after being acquired from Baltimore in a trade for pitcher Jack Flaherty. The 23-year-old was tagged for eight runs – six earned – and eight hits in 3 2/3 inning.
Rom started twice for Memphis and won both times with a 1.64 ERA.
“I kind of let the game speed up a little bit on me,” Rom said. “It was just me trying to do too much with what I’ve got. I should’ve kept the same mentality I had in Memphis, just keep it nice and crisp and smooth and easy.”
The Pirates scored two runs off Rom in the first inning, both unearned because of a two-out error by Fermin, the second baseman. Rodriguez drove in the first run with an infield single and Joe scored on a wild pitch.
Liover Peguero’s two-run single in the third pushed the Pirates’ lead to 4-0. Joe hit an RBI double an inning later and Palacios followed with his fifth longball.
Williams doubled in the Pirates’ final run in the eighth inning. Cardinals center fielder Tommy Edman then saved two runs by slamming into the fence to catch Alfonso Rivas’ two-out drive despite St. Louis trailing by 10 runs.
