DENVER — Before the start of a holiday weekend at Coors Field, the Cardinals consulted their resident expert about playing at Coors Filed — Nolan Arenado.
He had talked about how he’s seen some “weird things” happen in games at the highest ballpark in all the land, and then offered what shortstop Paul DeJong referred to as “good words of wisdom.” Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, another transplant from the NL West, described how the wide-open outfield, big alleys, and deep positioning of outfielders invite runners to take an extra base, to push — and doing so can unlock big rallies.
For nine innings they lacked an essential part of their plan — baserunners.
When they finally got some: fireworks.
The Cardinals scraped and scratched and clawed their way into extra innings, tying it 3-3 with two outs in the ninth, before unleashing a mountain of frustration on Colorado in the 10th inning. Doing as Arenado suggested, the Cardinals twice took an extra base in extra innings and watched how a six-run rally elevated them to a 9-3 victory Friday. Eight innings after providing the Cardinals’ first two runs with a homer, Yadier Molina delivered the go-ahead run with a two-out single in the 10th.
Arenado took third on the groundball up the middle so he could score for the essential insurance run under baseball’s new rules that start a runner at second in extras. Molina and Tommy Edman performed a double steal and the bonanza was on. Harrison Bader capped it with a 443-foot grand slam — the first of his career.
The Cardinals went from idling at two runs or less for the second consecutive night and eighth time in their past nine road games to an outpouring. They had seven at-bats with runners in scoring position in the first nine innings; they had seven plate appearances with a runner in scoring position in the 10th.
What bit the Cardinals Thursday night, boosted them Friday.
Two walks in the ninth inning did what the Cardinals could not for most of the game — grease their offense for a rally. The first two walks of the game from a Rockies pitcher put Edman and Bader on base in the ninth with one out. After DeJong fanned, Bader’s walk nudged Edman into scoring position — where he was for pinch-hitter Jose Rondon. The whole moment echoed of how Friday’s game turned south on them.
The Rockies’ Justin Lawrence walked two in the ninth. He got ahead 0-2 on Rondon. And then Rondon flipped the game with a line drive to left that scored Edman for a 3-3 knot.
In the ninth, Trevor Story drove a ball to one of the deepest nooks of Coors Field, and that’s where Bader caught it a few feet shy of a second walk-off in as many nights.
The Cardinals left Coors unsure if they were about to add injury to that still ongoing search for a more consistent offense.
Tyler O’Neill left Friday’s game after being hit by a fastball on his right hand. Teammate Dylan Carlson brought his glove and hat to O’Neill on the field after he tried to run the bases, but O’Neill just grabbed them and trotted back to the dugout, presumably to head for X-rays and scans late Friday.
All the Cardinals’ runs off starter Chi Chi Gonzalez came on one swing that gave Molina a completed list of NL ballparks.
Molina’s two-run homer in the second inning was the first of his career at Coors Field. He has hit at least one homer at every other National League park in which he’s played, and the only ballpark that he went without a homer in the regular season was Shea Stadium. He has a notable homer there in Queens against the Mets that won Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS. The Cardinals’ catcher has homers at 30 different ballparks.
Molina’s homer came immediately after O’Neill’s double.
And then the lineup went dormant for six innings.
Against the same right-hander they riddled with seven runs when they faced him in May, the Cardinals struggled to get a runner into scoring position. Gonzalez entered the game with a 5.81 ERA and yet didn’t have to miss bats to confound the Cardinals. He struck out only one. Like so many other pitchers who have had success against the Cardinals’ lineup this season, Gonzalez challenged them — with strikes.
His teammates rewarded Gonzalez — with a lead.
The Rockies answered Molina’s two-run homer with some situational hitting to cleave the Cardinals’ lead in half. Charlie Blackmon doubled. He tagged up on a fly ball to reach third. And then he scored on a groundout for Colorado’s first run. Three innings later, catcher Elias Diaz homered to tie the game. Diaz’s three-run homer broke the 2-2 tie in the ninth Thursday, and his game-tying homer Friday gave him a home run in four consecutive games. He’s the first catcher in Rockies’ history to do that.
Colorado claimed its first lead of the game in the sixth with back-to-back doubles off Cardinals starter Johan Oviedo. C.J. Cron’s RBI snapped the tie.
As he learns on the job how to pitch both efficiently and effectively, Oviedo was largely both against the Rockies. The strapping rookie right-hander walked only one batter, and then as the inning started to go sideways promptly steadied himself with his trusty slider. With two outs and a runner on, Oviedo walked the Rockies’ No. 6 hitter. He then fell behind 2-0 to Cron before bending an 87.7-mph slider over the plate that Cron skied for a popup behind the plate. The damage against Oviedo came on hits — self-sabotaging moments like the error that turned into a loss in Detroit or the games that have become mush because of walks.
Oviedo continues to search for how to use his slider to get swings and misses. He struck out only two. But of his 79 pitches, 52 were strikes.
Antonio Senzatela set the tone for Gonzalez to follow by making the Cardinals earn every base they got in Friday’s loss. The right-hander did not walk a batter in his seven innings. Gonzalez had similar success through seven innings. He too did not walk a batter — challenging the Cardinals in the zone before getting them to stray from it. Of the 21 outs Gonzalez got, 20 of them came from a ball in play. The Cardinals squeezed two runs from the seven hits they got off Gonzalez, but rarely got a runner to second base, let alone third.
A double play in the first inning erased the first hit of Gonzalez.
Two lineouts failed to generate much after Molina’s homer in the second.
A leadoff single in the fourth was erased on a lineout double play.
And in the seventh, DeJong rocketed a liner into one of those wide-open gaps and eased into second with a double. Bader’s grounder got him to third base as the potential tying run, but it also gave Gonzalez the second out of the inning. Matt Carpenter, pinch-hitting for Oviedo, flied out to end the threat. Those two at-bats were the Cardinals first with a runner in scoring position since the second inning since Molina’s homer.
