KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- St. Louis Cardinals rookie Dakota Hudson quickly scraped through scoreless innings, even as his Kansas City Royals counterpart was putting together a no-hit bid.
St. Louis eventually cracked Brad Keller in spectacular fashion.
Kansas City never did figure out Hudson.
The 24-year-old right-hander wound up throwing six innings of five-hit ball, and the Cardinals bullpen finished off a 6-0 victory Wednesday night for their second consecutive shutout of their cross-state rival and their eighth consecutive victory at Kauffman Stadium.
The victory put the Cardinals in a first-place tie in the NL Central with the Chicago Cubs.
Hudson (11-6) allowed runners to reach in every inning but the third, but he kept his poise and continued to get timely double plays, groundballs and fly outs. Hudson struck out five and walked two as the Cardinals won for the 13th time in his last 16 starts.
"He controlled a lot of counts," St. Louis Manager Mike Shildt said. "He was very, very effective."
So was Keller (7-13), who issued three walks and was victimized by an early error but didn't allow a hit until Marcell Ozuna's sharp single leading off the seventh. It began a run of six consecutive base hits that not only knocked Keller from the game but ultimately resulted in a five-run frame.
"We kept our confidence," said Paul DeJong, who later homered off the Royals bullpen to become the first shortstop in Cardinals history with two 20-plus home run seasons. "It was now-or-never for us."
Keller never thought he was pitching particularly well.
"I was grinding to throw strikes. I wasn't putting the ball where I wanted to," he said. "I felt like my breaking ball hit the grass every time I threw it."
The Royals, who were blanked 2-0 on Tuesday night, never got a runner past second base.
The Cardinals were following a similar road map until Ozuna's single in the seventh.
DeJong and Matt Carpenter followed with hits to send Keller to the showers, and Yadier Molina and Kolten Wong followed with singles of their own. By the time Randy Arozarena singled for his first major-league hit and Dexter Fowler hit a sacrifice fly, the Cardinals had taken a 5-0 lead.
Molina passed Tony Pena for the seventh-most innings caught in major-league history when the nine-time All-Star recorded the first out of the fourth inning. Molina has now caught 15,979 innings.
INTERLEAGUE
BREWERS 6, TWINS 5 Rookie Trent Grisham hit a three-run home run in the eighth, and host Milwaukee rallied to beat Minnesota. Mitch Garver, Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano each hit solo home runs for the Twins.
PADRES 7, RAYS 2 Cal Quantrill contributed with his arm and bat as San Diego beat visiting Tampa Bay for the first time in more than nine years. Quantrill (6-3) gave up a two-run home run in the first inning, but little else before leaving with one out in the sixth.
ATHLETICS 9, GIANTS 5 Matt Chapman homered twice, including a pivotal drive in the ninth that followed a late collapse by the Athletics' bullpen, and Oakland beat host San Francisco. Homer Bailey pitched seven scoreless innings and singled twice.
ANGELS 7, PIRATES 4 Albert Pujols had two hits and three RBI, and set the major-league record for career hits by a foreign-born player, leading Los Angeles over visiting Pittsburgh. His 3,167th hit moved him into sole possession of 15th place for career hits, one spot ahead of Adrian Beltre.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
ROCKIES 7, DIAMONDBACKS 6 Nolan Arenado hit a two-run home run in the ninth to give host Colorado a victory over Arizona. It was Arenado's third career walk-off home run and first since June 18, 2017, against San Francisco.
NATIONALS 17, REDS 7 Anthony Rendon, Kurt Suzuki and Adam Eaton hit home runs in a 10-run fifth, and Washington tacked on another six runs in the next inning to rout visiting Cincinnati.
PHILLIES 11, CUBS 1 J.T. Realmuto hit a grand slam, Bryce Harper went deep twice and host Philadelphia beat Chicago in Charlie Manuel's first game as hitting coach, ruining Cole Hamels' return home. Hamels (6-4) gave up 8 runs and 9 hits in 2-plus innings for the Cubs.
DODGERS 9, MARLINS 1 Clayton Kershaw struck out the first seven batters he faced and matched a season-high with 10 strikeouts in seven shutout innings as visiting Los Angeles beat Miami.
BRAVES 6, METS 4 Tyler Flowers drove in a tiebreaking run with an infield hit, and host Atlanta scored five runs in the seventh to beat New York.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
RANGERS 7, BLUE JAYS 3 Kolby Allard pitched 5 2/3 innings in his first Rangers' victory, Elvis Andrus had 4 hits and 2 RBI, and visiting Texas beat Toronto. Allard (1-0) allowed 3 runs and 4 hits, walked 3 and struck out 5.
YANKEES 6, ORIOLES 5 Gary Sanchez hit a three-run home run and host New York beat Baltimore for the 16th consecutive time this season. New York improved to 81-41 and moved 40 games over .500 for the first time since 2009.
RED SOX 5, INDIANS 1 Rafael Devers homered and singled, and Xander Bogaerts connected twice to lead visiting Boston over Cleveland. Devers singled in the first inning and hit a solo home run in the third before being retired on a comebacker in the fifth.
WHITE SOX 13, ASTROS 9 James McCann (Arkansas Razorbacks) hit a tiebreaking grand slam in the eighth inning as host Chicago outlasted Houston to win the season series from the runaway AL West leaders. Rookie Eloy Jimenez hit his 20th home run and doubled for the White Sox.
TIGERS 3, MARINERS 2 Victor Reyes hit a two-run single in the second inning and Detroit held on to beat visiting Seattle. Harold Castro had three hits for the Tigers while catcher Jake Rogers threw out two baserunners to end innings.
Wednesday’s games
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Colorado 7, Arizona 6
Washington 17, Cincinnati 7
Philadelphia 11, Chicago Cubs 1
LA Dodgers 9, Miami 1
Atlanta 6, NY Mets 4
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Texas 7, Toronto 3
NY Yankees 6, Baltimore 5
Boston 5, Cleveland 1
Chicago White Sox 13, Houston 9
Detroit 3, Seattle 2
INTERLEAGUE
Milwaukee 6, Minnesota 5
San Diego 7, Tampa Bay 2
Oakland 9, San Francisco 5
LA Angels 7, Pittsburgh 4
St. Louis 6, Kansas City 0
Sports on 08/15/2019