The St. Louis Cardinals came into Coors Field hot and hoping to stay that way as they battle for postseason positioning in the National League Central, currently sitting atop that division.
But for the second straight contest, they lost a pitchers’ duel to the Colorado Rockies who held on to win 2-1 and to secure an improbable series win.
It looked like it was going to be a long night both literally and figuratively for Antonio Senzatela opened the game by loading the bases with a leadoff double to Dexter Fowler, a Paul Goldschmidt walk, and a fielder’s choice to Marcell Ozuna.
Somehow, he escaped with no damage done after getting Paul DeJong to hit into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
The Cardinals did get to him in the third. Again Fowler got things started, this time with a single. He advanced when Senzatela flinched for a balk which ended up being huge, as he was able to score on a two-out ground rule double down the third-base line off the bat of Goldschmidt.
Colorado tied it up with their first two batters in the fifth. Rookie Sam Hilliard worked a nice at bat, drawing a walk, and showed off his easy speed when he cruised all the way around to score from first base on a Tony Wolters double down the right-field line.
With some good execution, they might’ve gotten more; however, Senzatela couldn’t advance the runner with a sacrifice bunt, whiffing on three consecutive attempts for the strikeout. Trevor Story walked and Nolan Arenado was intentionally passed to load the bases, but Daniel Murphy flew out to deep left to leave ’em that way.
Senzatela worked out of a jam in the top of the sixth after Ian Desmond misplayed a liner to left from DeJong, resulting in a double, but St. Louis could not capitalize.
Desmond made up for the blunder, and then some, by absolutely unloading on a pitch in the second at bat of the next half-inning. The ball was scorched at 109 MPH off the bat and it landed 448 feet away for Desmond’s 17th blast of the year.
Senzatela polished off his first quality start since June 23 and handed the game to Wes Parsons who allowed a hit and no runs in the seventh.
Carlos Estevez came on for the eighth and issued a walk to Fowler. Using his power fastball throughout the frame, Fowler was left stranded at first in an otherwise clean inning.
DeJong led off in the ninth against Jairo Diaz with a line drive single to left and Yadier Molina followed with a grounder that Arenado fielded deep behind third base. He opted to go to second for the lead force out, but the throw pulled Ryan McMahon off the bag and everyone was safe with nobody out.
Diaz didn’t panic and got pinch-hitter Tommy Edman to roll over an 0-2 pitch for a 4-6-3 double play as the tying run advanced to third. He passed on throwing a strike to Matt Carpenter and gave up a hard line drive right at Desmond in left for the final out.
