The St. Louis Cardinals and Colorado Rockies finished up their four game series on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of over 40,000 at Busch Stadium. On Saturday night, the Rockies scored their first win in the series, defeating St. Louis 6-2.
And in what was an intense pitching battle, it was the clutch hitting by a newcomer for St. Louis that provided them with a walk-off victory.
In the series finale, the starting pitchers were Jaime Garcia (3-4, 2.00) for the Cardinals, and Yohan Flande (1-1, 3.68) for the Rockies.
It was a duel on the mound during the afternoon, and neither pitcher seemed to budge, as they both pitched a stalemate. The first Cardinals’ hit did not come until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Stephen Piscotty extended his hitting streak to eight games with a single.
The Rockies’ first hit, meanwhile, did not occur until the top of the fifth, when Charlie Blackmon hit a single as well. But neither of the team’s first hits led to any runs.
During the bottom of the fifth, though, St. Louis finally scored the runs of the game. After an infield single by Jason Heyward, Randal Grichuk hit a two-run home run over the center-field wall to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Steve Cishek entered the game in the top of the sixth inning to relieve Garcia, who had another good start under his belt. His final line of the game: 5.0+ IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 4 Ks. Cishek first faced off against one of the top Colorado Rockies’ players, Nolan Arenado. And Arenado singled to left field. Kyle Parker flew out next. Ben Paulsen came to the plate, and scored DJ LeMaheiu
Cishek then threw a wild pitch, that scored Arenado to tie the game up at 2-2.
Kevin Siegrist, Jonathan Broxton, and Tevor Rosenthal all pitched scoreless relief innings, as the game headed to the bottom of the ninth, with the Cardinals and Rockies still tied at 2-2.
With Scott Oberg on the mound for Colorado, Jhonny Peralta led off the inning with a ground out. Heyward then doubled, and Grichuk reached on an infield single. Brandon Moss then stepped up to the plate, hitting for Mark Reynolds.
And Moss made the most of his at-bat, hitting a walk-off single in between the shortstop and third baseman, scoring Heyward and giving the Cardinals a 3-2 victory. The win was not only the Cardinals’ 40th win at home this year, was also their 500th win at Busch Stadium III.
With the win, St. Louis improved to 67-38, while the Rockies fell to 44-59 on the season.
On Tuesday, the Cardinals start a three games series at Cincinnati, and John Lackey will get the start.
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
