ST. LOUIS -- Two weeks after snapping a homerless stretch that dated back to his high school days, Cardinals starting pitcher John Gant tallied his second career home run on his second career hit to give the Cards an early two-run lead over the Pirates in Thursday's 5-0 win at Busch Stadium.
With that homer -- a 411-foot shot, per Statcast™ -- Gant is the only player in Major League history to hit at least two home runs while never having reached base safely by any other means. In total, he's taken 36 at-bats.
"Probably atypical I'd say," Gant said, downplaying the history he had just made. "I'm just trying to make contact and contact was made tonight."
Gant's third-inning homer came four pitches after outfielder Harrison Bader took Bucs starter Joe Musgrove deep for his 10th home run of the year. It marked the seventh time this season that the Cardinals have connected for back-to-back blasts.

That Gant was involved in the feat was particularly unexpected. Earlier this month, he became just the second player since 1920 to snap an 0-for-30 start to his career by homering. Gant hadn't recorded a hit since. Now, he's the third pitcher since at least 1961 to homer for his first two Major League hits. Jim Rooker (1969) and Danny Graves (2000-01) were the others.
"If you've got more than one, you're a power hitter, right?" Jose Martinez said. "I say if you hit one, you're lucky. If you hit two, you're a power hitter."
Gant joins Miles Mikolas (2018), Adam Wainwright ('09, '16, '17) and Rick Ankiel ('00) as the only Cardinals pitchers since 1990 to hit multiple homers in a season. Gant and Mikolas are the first pair of Cards pitchers to accomplish the feat in the same year since '73, when Rick Wise hit three and Bob Gibson slammed two.
The Cardinals have more homers (five) from their starting pitchers this year than they've had in any season since 1973. That year, Wise, Gibson and Scipio Spinks combined to hit six.