Cards topple Rox with late rally against the bullpen

In a mirror-image of the second game of this series, the St. Louis Cardinals turned the tables on the Colorado Rockies, delivering a 6-3 victory of their own.

Once again, the Rockies got some solid but not dominating stuff from starter Kyle Freeland but the Cards were able to get after the Colorado bullpen to pull away in the final innings to take the third game of the set, meaning the Rockies will need to emerge victorious on Thursday afternoon to earn the split.

Colorado got on the board in the top of the third. Ian Desmond, after singling in the first, drew a walk with one out and advanced to second on a single down the third base line off the bat of Nolan Arenado. Carlos Gonzalez struck out, though, leaving it up to Trevor Story to come through with two outs after failing to do so with runners at first and third in the first inning.

Story battled and eventually did deliver the crucial base hit, singling on a sharp liner to left, scoring Desmond for the first run of the game. Gerardo Parra backed that up with a double down the left-field line to plate Arenado and give the Rockies a 2-0 advantage.

The Cardinals answered in the bottom of the frame, starting once again with a walk and once again with Matt Carpenter, who drew the free pass with one away. Yadier Molina followed with a line drive single to left and Paul DeJong was able to sneak one by a diving Arenado at third to score Carpenter and pull the Cardinals back to within a run.

They tied it up in the fourth thanks to a leadoff single from Yairo Munoz, and one-out single from Harrison Bader and a productive groundout from relief pitcher Daniel Poncedeleon that brought in Munoz to tie the game.

St. Louis took the lead in the sixth on account of more groundballs that just managed to find the right space. Bader slipped one just inside the first base line for a one-out double and scored on a single up the middle from Tyler O’Neill.

Bryan Shaw pitched the seventh, giving up a leadoff single but otherwise working a clean inning to keep the Rockies within one.

But the Cardinals were able to pull away against Jake McGee in the eighth.

A leadoff single from Bader and a one-out walk to Matt Carpenter set the stage for Yadier Molina’s game-sealing two-RBI double. He scored on a single to left off the bat of Marcell Ozuna to make it 6-2.

The Rockies did get one back in the ninth on a Charlie Blackmon walk and Arenado double. but it was too little too late.