☀ Key Stats
◆ Home runs produced 18 of the game’s 20 runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees 13-7.
◆ The teams combined for 10 home runs, with each club hitting five.
◆ Alec Burleson hit three two-run home runs and drove in six runs.
◆ St. Louis scored seven runs in the eighth inning on home runs by Nathan Church, Jimmy Crooks and Burleson.
◆ New York erased a 6-0 deficit to lead 7-6 before the Cardinals scored the game’s final seven runs.
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Home runs produced 18 of the game’s 20 runs as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the New York Yankees 13-7, according to MLB’s official game record.
The teams combined for 10 home runs, including three two-run shots by Alec Burleson.
St. Louis led 6-0, fell behind 7-6 and then scored seven runs on three homers in the eighth inning.
Burleson drove in six runs, while every Yankees run came on one of New York’s five home runs.
Burleson turned three swings into six runs
Burleson opened the scoring with a two-run homer in the first inning after JJ Wetherholt reached base.
José Fermín added an RBI double in the second, producing one of only two runs in the game that did not score on a home run.
Nathan Church’s run-scoring single made it 4-0 in the third.
Burleson then hit his second two-run homer in the fourth, driving in Jordan Walker and extending the Cardinals’ lead to 6-0.
His third homer came during the decisive eighth inning.
The two-run shot completed the scoring and gave St. Louis its final 13-7 margin.
Each of Burleson’s home runs came with one runner on base, allowing him to produce six runs from three swings.
Yankees scored seven straight runs on five homers
New York began its comeback in the fifth inning.
Austin Wells and Trent Grisham hit back-to-back home runs, cutting the Cardinals’ lead from six runs to 6-3.
The Yankees then hit three more homers in the seventh.
Ryan McMahon and José Caballero connected on solo shots before Luis García Jr. hit a two-run homer that put New York ahead 7-6.
The five home runs accounted for every Yankees run.
New York had erased a six-run deficit by scoring seven consecutive runs, but the lead lasted only until the next half-inning.
Three home runs decided the game in the eighth
The Cardinals responded immediately after falling behind.
Church hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth, turning the one-run deficit into a 9-7 lead.
Jimmy Crooks followed with a two-run homer that pushed the advantage to 11-7.
Burleson’s third two-run shot completed the seven-run inning.
St. Louis therefore scored the game’s final seven runs after New York had scored the previous seven.
The Cardinals’ eighth-inning rally produced more than half of their final total and changed a one-run deficit into a six-run victory.
All seven runs in the inning came on home runs.
Only two runs came without a homer
The game’s scoring distribution was unusually concentrated.
Home runs accounted for 90% of the runs, with only Fermín’s RBI double and Church’s RBI single producing runs through other types of hits.
St. Louis scored 11 of its 13 runs on five home runs.
New York scored all seven of its runs on five homers.
The teams combined for 10 home runs, but the Cardinals gained the larger return because four of their five homers came with runners on base.
Burleson hit three two-run shots, Church added a three-run homer and Crooks supplied another two-run homer.
Three of New York’s five home runs were solo shots.
Schlittler needed 83 pitches for three innings
Yankees starter Cam Schlittler lasted three innings and threw 83 pitches, including 51 strikes.
He walked five batters and allowed the first of Burleson’s three home runs.
Schlittler left with New York behind 4-0.
The Yankees’ relief pitchers prevented St. Louis from scoring in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, giving the offense enough time to complete its comeback.
The bullpen could not preserve the lead in the eighth.
New York used multiple pitchers during the seven-run inning as St. Louis sent an extended sequence of batters to the plate.
✦ Why it matters ✦
The victory moved St. Louis to 56-57, leaving the Cardinals one game below .500 after consecutive wins.
New York fell to 63-50 and remained in second place in the American League East.
The game also showed the difference between hitting home runs with the bases empty and hitting them with runners aboard.
Both teams hit five homers, but St. Louis produced 11 runs from its five shots while New York produced seven.
The Cardinals also recovered immediately after losing a six-run lead.
New York needed five home runs across three innings to move ahead, but St. Louis answered with three homers in one inning to regain control.
Burleson’s three-homer performance supplied almost half of the Cardinals’ runs and gave St. Louis the largest individual contribution in a game shaped almost entirely by power hitting.
