CINCINNATI (AP) — Aristides Aquino keeps hitting historic home runs.
Cincinnati’s red-hot rookie had a three-run homer, Nick Senzel added a leadoff shot and the Reds dropped the St. Louis Cardinals back into a tie with Chicago for first place in the NL Central Division with a 6-1 victory on Saturday.

With the Reds leading 2-1 in the fifth, Aquino followed two-out singles by Josh VanMeter and Freddy Galvis with a no-doubt drive to center field on Miles Mikolas’ first pitch for his second homer in two nights, his 10th in his last 11 games and 11th in his 17th career games. Aquino is the first rookie since 1900 with 11 homers in his first 17 games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
THROWBACK SATURDAY
The Reds wore replicas of the uniforms worn by the 1976 team, the 11th in a series of 15 throwback outfits the team is wearing to help celebrate the 150th anniversary of baseball’s first all-professional team. The Cardinals wore for the 10th time this season the road alternate “victory” blue uniforms the team wore in the 1980s. St. Louis is 1-9 in those uniforms.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: RHP Jack Flaherty (6-6) has allowed 10 hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 11 1/3 shutout innings over two starts against Cincinnati this season.
Reds: LHP Alex Wood (1-1) has issued three walks and amassed 15 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings over his first four starts since coming off the injured list on July 28.

Pre-game coverage on KJAN at 11:15-a.m.  First pitch at 12:10.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The shirts read “shut out the noise.” Shutting out the pain of suddenly losing the man behind the mantra will take far longer for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Still, there was something about the game-day routine that brought a sense of relief and normalcy just six days removed from the death of wide receivers coach Darryl Drake.

The receivers walked out to pregame warmups wearing gear with “shut out the noise” emblazoned on them, the phrase Drake adopted for his group heading into the 2019 season. The Steelers took the field with “DD” stickers on their helmets, stickers that will remain there all season. Players gathered on the sideline to kneel in prayer. A moment of silence was held just before the national anthem.

Then the ball was kicked off and Pittsburgh went back to work, keeping Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in check in a 17-7 victory on Saturday night.
UP NEXT
Chiefs: Host San Francisco next Saturday.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (AP) — A softball slugger from Iowa and a baseball player from Florida won the inaugural Little League Home Run Derby on Saturday at the Little League World Series.

Everest Ouellette of Palm Harbor, Florida, topped in the baseball competition after he hit his 15th home run — the one that sealed the victory — in walk-off fashion. He edged Nate Hawton-Henley of Oakton, Virginia, who had a few dozen family and friends from his hometown in attendance.

“Everest was incredible,” said ESPN analyst and former big leaguer Mark Teixeira, who was an honorary coach for the event. “He really won it because of the last minute there of the final round. When he gets on, you can see a lot of home runs in a row.”

Everest and Nate both advanced from the East Regional, which was held at SunTrust Park in Atlanta, and have gotten to know each other well throughout their journeys to Williamsport. “(Nate) is very competitive,” Everest said. “He’s one of my best friends of the tournament and he’s just super friendly and nice.” Everest hit a total of 37 home runs throughout all three rounds.

Aubrey Clark of Johnston, Iowa, beat Jeylene Joza of Jersey City, New Jersey, in a tiebreaker in the championship round of the softball bracket. Even though Aubrey admitted afterward that she got nervous as the two-minute clock wound down in each round, she was aided a couple of times by late home runs to advance to the championship round, where she defeated Jeylene.

“Once I got my first (home run), that’s when I started to feel not as much pressure,” Aubrey said. “When I know that it’s my last pitch, I just put a lot more into it.”
Aubrey finished with 12 total home runs, including the winning home run that came on her final swing in the tiebreaker of the championship. But she almost didn’t get that far.

In the first round of the competition, she hit a home run on her final swing in the tiebreaker of the round just to move on to the second round. “It feels great,” Aubrey said. “I never thought I would be able to come here.”

Added to the opening weekend of Little League World Series to generate a little buzz and expand the number of players exposed to LLWS atmosphere, a few hundred fans gathered and cheered each home run that sailed over pink fences set up in the outfield. The event was held at Bowman Field in downtown Williamsport, where the Chicago Cubs and Pittsburgh Pirates will play in the Little League Classic on Sunday night.