CHICAGO — Jordan Montgomery had the best start of his career on Monday night, yet he was in the shadow of another historic performance from the Dominican slugger. Albert Pujols.
As if hitting the 693rd career home run wasn’t enough, Pujols tied Barry Bonds for first in major league history when he hit the fence against the 449th pitcher. Pujols lit a letter-high pitch from left-hander Drew Smyly and sent it flying across left-center field at Wrigley Field for the only run of the night in the St. Louis win 1-0 over the rival Cubs. The victory was the eighth in a row for the Cardinals and the eighth of the season in 12 games against the Cubs.
That one run proved to be enough for Montgomery, who limited the Cubs to one hit and retired the last 19 batters he faced in the game. The lanky lefty, acquired at the trade deadline from the Yankees, gave up a clean double to Christopher Morel in the bottom of the third inning but held the Cubs up the rest of the way. Montgomery is 4-0 in four starts for the Cardinals – three of those wins coming at Busch Stadium and the best of all on Monday night.
Montgomery (7-3) retired 27 of the 28 batters he faced. He struck out seven and walked none. He needed just 99 pitches — 65 of which were strikes — to tie up the Cubs and qualify for a “Maddux” (a complete-game shutout with fewer than 100 pitches).
The veteran has hit six homers in seven games. He is now three homers away from catching Alex Rodriguez for fourth place on the Major League all-time list, and he is seven away from entering the exclusive 700 home run club. Along with his 106.1 mph line that he hit the wall in the second inning of Monday’s game, Pujols recorded his 940th career game with two or more hits – which ranks 10th in MLB history.