Monday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies did not even remotely go the way the St. Louis Cardinals had expected it to. On top of losing in a 11-3 blowout, they lost left fielder Matt Holliday for an unspecified period of time due to a grade two right quad strain.
On Tuesday night, they looked to even the series.
But Colorado had other plans.
In a close finish, with power hitting playing a part, the Rockies defeated the Cardinals 4-3 on Tuesday night.
For St. Louis, Michael Wacha got the start on the mound, while veteran Jorge De La Rosa took the mound for the Rockies.
In the top of the first inning, De La Rosa pitched a 1-2-3 inning, with the first two batters, Kolten Wong, and Matt Carpenter striking out. Wacha only allowed a single to Troy Tulowitzki and DJ LeMahieu, but did not allow a run.
Both Wacha and De La Rosa pitched 1-2-3 half innings in the second inning, to keep it a scoreless game heading into the third. In fact, the St. Louis Cardinals were actually being no-hit by De La Rosa and the Rockies until the top of the fifth, when Randal Grichuk singled on a sharply hit ground ball. On a fielder’s choice, Jon Jay then reached base, as Grichuk was out at third.
Peter Bourjos stepped up to the plate next and singled home Jay, giving the Cardinals the first run of the game, making it a 1-0 lead for St. Louis. They increased that lead in the top of the sixth inning when shortstop Jhonny Peralta hit a solo home run (his 10th home run of the season) to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Wacha, meanwhile, struck out seven batters through the first five innings of the game, while only allowing five hits to the Rockies, who just a day prior, had two innings of scoring five runs each. The bottom of the sixth inning started with a pop out by Tulowtizki. Carlos Gonzalez followed with a single, and Nolan Arenado tied the game with his 15th home run of the season, making it a 2-2 game.
And while he got out of the inning with two straight strikeouts, Wacha showed frustration walking towards the Cardinals dugout, as the game headed to the seventh inning.
After three strikeouts by De La Rosa in the top of the seventh, Wacha went back to work on the mound in the bottom half of the inning. Willie Rosario led off with a single, and LeMahieu with one out hit a double scoring Rosario and giving the Rockies a 3-2 lead.
Randy Choate soon after entered the game with two outs, and tried to get the final out to end the inning. But Gonzalez singled to left field, scoring LeMahieu and increasing the Rockies lead to 4-2. Seth Maness then entered the game to get the final out.
Peter Bourjos led off the top of the eighth with Boone Logan on the mound, and hit his second home run of the season to make it a 4-3 game. Tony Cruz walked, and Wong then got hit with a pitch, and Mark Reynolds walked, to load the bases for Yadier Molina.
Unfortunately, Molina popped out, stranding the bases loaded, as the Cardinals still trailed 4-3.
Matt Belisle entered in relief for Maness to pitch the bottom of the eighth, and threw a scoreless half inning, with John Axford coming into the game for the Rockies to try and close it out.
Grichuck struck out, Jay grounded out, bringing up Bourjos, who walked as Jason Heyward entered the game with two outs. Heyward grounded out, though, and the Rockies won 4-3.
St. Louis drops to 38-21 on the year as they lose their second straight game, while the Rockies improve to 27-30 on the season. Wacha loses only his second game of the season.
Tomorrow afternoon, Carlos Martinez gets the nod on the mound.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
