St. Louis Cardinals' Richie Palacios Crushes 1st Career Home Run in Battle of Brothers
Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Joshua Palacios landed the first blow in a viral battle of the brothers on Monday, but St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Richie Palacios got some revenge Tuesday.
Joshua hit a home run and ended Monday's series opener with a diving catch. Richie may have gotten a late-inning hit that night, but he was overshadowed by his older brother on the box score. That wouldn't be the case in game two.
Richie Palacios stepped up to the plate in the top of the fifth, leading off with his Cardinals down 1-0. It took one swing of the bat for Palacios to erase that deficit, crushing his first career home run deep to right.
Palacios played 54 games with the Cleveland Guardians in 2022, but didn't record a single home run in any of his 123 plate appearances. It took Palacios just six games and 14 plate appearances into his stint with the Cardinals to finally break through with a big league bomb.
In that limited time, the 26-year-old is hitting .286 with a .857 OPS in St. Louis.
Joshua, meanwhile, went 0-for-4 on Tuesday. The 28-year-old is now batting .214 with a .639 OPS on the season – his first in Pittsburgh.
Richie had the better final stat line of the Palacios brothers Tuesday, but Joshua's Pirates still came out on top 6-3 thanks to a five-run fifth inning.
The finale between the Pirates and Cardinals is scheduled to get underway at 12:35 p.m. ET. Pittsburgh has already claimed the series, but has a chance to go for the sweep Wednesday.
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