Historic pinch-hit HR by Yepez not enough for Cards in Game 1

ST. LOUIS -- Having toiled in the Minor Leagues for seven seasons, including another extended stretch this season after suffering a forearm injury, Cardinals rookie Juan Yepez was more than ready when he got the opportunity he had waited for on Friday.

However, not long after delivering a pinch-hit go-ahead home run -- the first in the Cardinals’ storied postseason history -- Yepez could only look on in dismay as the Phillies rallied for six runs in the ninth inning to defeat the Cardinals, 6-3, in Game 1 of the NL Wild Card Series at Busch Stadium.

In addition to stealing the game, the Phillies stole Yepez’s moment as the potential hero in the biggest spot of his young career. The 24-year-old came off the bench as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and drilled a two-run home run on the first pitch he saw from Philadelphia reliever José Alvarado. The 363-foot smash stayed just inside the left-field foul pole and gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Yepez, who joined the Phillies' Ben Francisco (2011) as the only players in postseason history to hit a pinch-hit home run in the seventh inning or later of a scoreless game, wildly waved his arms to incite more noise from the 45,911 fans jammed inside a sold-out Busch Stadium when he came out of the dugout for a curtain call.

“I was just trying to see the ball and hit it,” said Yepez, who is the first player since Evan Longoria (2008) to homer on the first postseason pitch he’d ever seen. “It was a good pitch to hit and [I] was able to hit it out of the ballpark.”

Yepez, a native of Venezuela, hit 12 home runs and drove in 30 runs in his rookie season with the Cardinals. Nine of those home runs came in May and June.

Yepez spent more than a month on the injured list when he strained a ligament in his right forearm in July, and he was later optioned back to Triple-A Memphis in mid-August. Other than returning to the Cardinals for one day when Nolan Arenado was on the paternity list, Yepez spent a month in Memphis before being recalled to St. Louis on Sept. 19. He homered on Sept. 23 in Dodger Stadium -- the same night his close friend and mentor, Albert Pujols, hit home run Nos. 699 and 700. That Yepez home run was his first at the Major League level since July.

“What a huge at-bat, and he deserved that moment because he’s been working his butt off,” teammate Brendan Donovan said. “That was a big swing. I always joke with him that he’s from Tennessee now [because he lives in Murfreesboro, Tenn., in the offseason]. He’s a dear friend and I’m so excited for him.”

While admitting that Friday’s loss was one of the most gut-wrenching of his baseball career, Yepez said he is confident the Cardinals will have plenty of fight left in them on Saturday when they face the Phillies in a must-win situation in the best-of-three Wild Card Series.

“Man, it's a tough loss, I’m not going to lie,” said Yepez, who likely did enough on Friday to earn a start in left field in Game 2 on Saturday. “We still have two more games to go, and we're going to win it.”