After suffering a tough loss of the come-from-behind variety in the opener against the Cardinals, the Rockies took a tough loss of the other kind getting easily handled in an 8-3 game that was not as close as the score might suggest.
Colorado, like most everyone else in baseball this season, had no answers for 23-year-old right-handed pitcher Jack Flaherty who brought a 3.46 ERA into the game. He has been a huge part of keeping his club in the playoff hunt and did his part again on Friday night with a stellar performance.
The Cardinals got on the board right away in the bottom of the first.
Ryan McMahon made a one-out fielding error when he mishandled one off the bat of Kolten Wong. Starting pitcher Peter Lambert got Paul Goldschmidt to line out for the second out but Marcel Ozuna took advantage of the defensive miscue by hammering a line drive over the wall in left-center field for a two-run home run.
The Rockies extreme struggles on offense meant that the contest remained 2-0 until the Cards tacked on a run in the fourth.
Tommy Edman opened the frame with a double to center and Harrison Bader followed with a walk. Flaherty got his job done with a successful sac bunt and Dexter Fowler walked to load the bases.
Lambert pitched well enough to Goldschmidt and Ozuna to have escaped any damage, getting a harmless pop up to first out of the former and a lineout to center out of the latter.
Unfortunately for the 22-year-old righty, Wong hit before those two and was plunked by a pitch that brought a runner in with bases full of birds.
Yonathan Daza led off the fifth by recording the Rockies first hit in the game, a line-drive single back up the middle; Flaherty went on to strike out the side.
The home team added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth on a series of singles from Yadier Molina, Edman, and Bader and a sacrifice fly from Flaherty. A single from Goldschmidt, a double from Ozuna, and a single by Paul DeJong against new reliever Wes Parsons in the sixth made it 8-0.
Colorado managed three token runs in the final frame against Cards’ reliever John Gant. Nolan Arenado singled, Daniel Murphy walked, McMahon pulled one through the right side and Daza walked before Dom Nunez struck out, Garrett Hampson grounded out, and Yonder Alonso flew out to left to end the game.
