DENVER — Whether the game turned on the double play missed or the pitching change that didn’t happen, the St. Louis Cardinals still had plenty of other innings to find a way for the offense to overcome both.
Rockies shortstop Trevor Story shattered a scoreless game with a three-run homer in the seventh inning that proved enough withstand the Cardinals’ rally and carry Colorado to a 3-2 victory Saturday at Coors Field. For the eighth consecutive road loss the Cardinals’ offense stalled at two runs or less, and in 11 of their previous 12 losses overall they have failed to score more than two runs. Outside of a six-run 10th inning Friday that started with a runner at second base, the Cardinals have managed a total of seven runs in the other 27 innings of play at one of the best places to hit in the majors.
Echoing their last-gasp rally that became a victory Friday night, the Cardinals got the tying run to third in the ninth inning. They scored two runs with two outs in the eighth inning to narrow the game to that run. Dylan Carlson’s double got them started, Paul Goldschmidt’s RBI single got them on the scoreboard, and Yadier Molina’s second RBI single up the middle in as many games brought in the second run and got the tying run to third base. What the Cardinals did with four batters was still shy of what Story did with one swing.
Why he got to take it against lefty Genesis Cabrera is a question lingering like the smoke from all the weekend’s celebratory fireworks.
The Cardinals had two outs, righthander John Gant warm, and Cabrera had faced the mandatory three batters as Story strolled to the plate. The Rockies had two runners on in a scoreless game, and they were unable to turn what would have been an inning-ending double play right before Story’s at-bat. Manager Mike Shildt stayed with Cabrera against Story despite the All-Star shortstop’s power history against lefties. This season, the splits have been muted with Story slugging .461 vs. lefties, .421 vs. righthanded pitchers. In 2020, that gap was impossible to ignore. Story slugged .609 vs. lefties, .485 vs. righthanded pitchers, and his career numbers are virtually the same.
Cabrera greeted Story with a changeup.
Story put it in the left-field seats
His 461-foot home run gave the Rockies a 3-0 lead and just enough space for Daniel Bard to handle in the ninth after Gant held a one-run game through the top of that inning. Bard walked the runner that got to third base on Tommy Edman’s two-out double. Bard struck out Carlson to complete his 12th save.
When Nolan Arenado came to the plate in the first inning there was an ovation from a sellout crowd of 48,182 – the third standing-o and helmet doff in as many days of his return to Coors Field – and then came the fireworks.
Literally, fireworks.
Accidentally, fireworks.
That familiar pop, sizzle, and fizzle of fireworks could be heard coming from the roof of the ballpark, just to the third-base side of home plate. There was smoke coming off the roof, and it appeared that some of the evening’s show had been prematurely lit. Sparkles of red and belches of smoke continued to come from the roof as Arenado walked, as the Cardinals’ inning ended, and as the game entered the second. That was the extent of the fireworks for awhile – figuratively too, because the starting pitchers did to the hitters what someone was able to do to the smoldering fireworks – douse them.
What the Cardinals continue to search for offensively, they may have found for the rotation. Lefty Wade LeBlanc authored his second consecutive steady start since moving out of the bullpen, buying the relievers at least a chance to flex in their roles. Colorado lefty Kyle Freeland combined to allow six hits and zero runs through the end of the sixth inning. LeBlanc walked three batters and allowed three hits through his 5 2/3 innings, but he continued to do what others didn’t to open up a spot in the rotation for him. He threw strikes. He challenged hitters. He got grounders.
He got outs.
LeBlanc didn’t throw a pitch faster than an 89.9-mph sinker and spent most of the game clustering his pitches around the mid-80s, flashing movement and command more than spin rate and velo. He got seven swings and misses on his changeup and six grounders.
As both teams held fast to a scoreless tie, the middle innings became a showcase of fielding excellence by the corner infielders not named Arenado.
In the fourth inning Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon bounced a grounder to Arenado and had a chance to outrun the throw. Arenado slung a fastball toward first, but it was wide and threatened to go deep into foul territory – before Paul Goldschmidt dove as if reaching for a goal line and cut the ball off. That kept McMahon at first. And it wasn’t even Goldschmidt’s best defensive play of the inning. That came three batters later.
A potential double play throw went wide and past Goldschmidt. The Cardinals’ Gold Glove first baseman pivoted, caught the carom with his barehand and threw home to get McMahon with a tag as he tried to slide in for the game’s first run.
McMahon, the Rockies’ starter at third the first three games of the holiday weekend series, nearly won the game for Colorado with his glove Friday night. The utility fielder speared a hard grounder down the third-base line that could have gone for an RBI double and turned it into an inning-ending out in the eight inning. He started the ninth by corralling a ricochet off the pitcher to erase what would have been a leadoff infield single.
On Saturday, his home whites still dirty from that failed slide home, McMahon had an assist on all three outs in the sixth inning. Arenado’s two-out double put the Cardinals first runner in scoring position since the third inning. Molina pulled a ball down the third-base line but could not thread the gap between base and McMahon’s glove. The Rockies’ fielder made the backhand play and threw out Molina to keep the game scoreless as it stretched through the sixth inning, the last inning that featured either starter.
As crafty and effect as LeBlanc was against the Rockies’ lineup, Freeland was timely when it came to vexing the Cardinals’ searching offense.
He walked two batters with two outs in the first inning before getting a fly ball that ended the inning. In the second, a leadoff infield single put the Cardinals in motion – until Freeland picked off Harrison Bader to clear the bases again. The Cardinals got a runner to third in the third inning but a grounder brought an end to the briefest flicker of a whisper of a chance.
