Not in the Cards: Rockies take series from St. Louis with total team effort

DENVER – It’s like clockwork. The Colorado Rockies got a good-to-great outing from rookie starting pitcher German Marquez, played fantastic defense, got just enough timely hitting, and bounced back from a loss to win another series, this time against the St. Louis Cardinals. At this point, you really could set your watch by it.

The 8-4 win was brought to you by some unlikely characters but led to the 12th series win of the season to just two losses.

The Rockies plated a run in the second on the mighty strength of two groundball singles and a fielder’s choice. Gerardo Parra hit a one-out grounder up the middle and moved to third on a line drive to right off the bat of Ian Desmond. Alexi Amarista then hit a grounder to third and it looked for a moment like Jedd Gyorko might try to throw Parra out at home but a slight bobble made the right play a throw to first and that’s what Gyorko settled on as the first run of the game came in to score.

In the bottom of the fourth, Colorado scored three times on the might strength of a three-run shot from Parra. Yes, that, Parra. Nolan Arenado began the inning with a walk, which is usually a good omen for an offense, and Mark Reynolds followed up with the part of his offense that has made him so valuable this season; the solid line-drive single. Then Parra, much to the delight of the home faithful and to the considerable and palpable frustration of the many fans clad in red, hit a towering shot over the right-field scoreboard to give the Rockies a 4-0 lead.

I love everything about this tbh pic.twitter.com/nJfEJxNVX5

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) May 28, 2017

He has quietly been a much better player in 2017.

The Cardinals had a chance to steal a run or two in the top of the fifth. Reynolds lost a ball in the sun and Marquez just missed catching a comebacker, giving St. Louis two infield hits in the inning. He lost command for a moment, walking Tommy Pham to load the bases, but painted the edges of the strike zone against Matt Carpenter to induce an easy ground out to second, escaping the jam with no damage done.

Gyorko and Greg Garcia finally got to Marquez in the sixth as his pitches floated away from the edges where he has been so successful through the first five frames. The pair of Cards launched long solo home runs and after a quick conference on the mound, Bud Black made the decision to go to his bullpen, calling out Chris Rusin who recorded the final out of the inning without any more scoring.

Marquez’ final line: 5.2, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K. He threw 92 pitches, 63 for strikes. Marquez was visibly frustrated at not being able to finish the sixth inning but once again, a Rockies rookie pitcher gave the club a quality start at home and departed the field with his team ahead.

Rusin did get tagged in the seventh, another solo home run for the Cardinals. Pham hit his second homer in as many games — delivering the big blow against Kyle Freeland last night — to make it a 4-3 game and increase the drama and intensity in the building quite a bit.

Rusin managed to record two outs in the inning before giving way to Adam Ottavino who did his “walk the first guy then strike out the next guy and make him look completely silly” routine to finish the seventh. Otto stayed on through the eighth, recording a 1-2-3 inning.

Colorado burst out in the eighth inning to for four insurance runs, getting a little help from some poor decisions by the St. Louis shortstop who twice in the inning tried to cut down a runner at third and failed, giving the Rockies an extra out to play with. They took full advantage, getting an RBI single from Reynolds a sac fly from Carlos Gonzalez, and then a dagger opposite-field single from Tony Wolters to put the Rockies up 8-3. They came into the frame up just 4-3.

The RBI for Reynolds moved him back into a tie for second place in MLB with Adam Duvall of the Cincinnati Reds, still two behind Charlie Blackmon.

Greg Holland — who was already warming up before the eighth got crazy — came on to finish the game, his first appearance in a non-save situation. He gave up a lead-off home run to Paul DeJong who was making his very first plate appearance in MLB. It was the first time Holland has been taken deep in 2017. That will surely be a fond memory for DeJong who got to one of the very best in the game in his first chance. But Holland came right back and struck out a pair to end the game.

Six of the eight Rockies runs scored in this game came on RBI from Amarista, Parra, and Wolters. Not Arenado, Reynolds (one at the very end) or Blackmon. This game was won on the backs of a kid who came into the season as the sixth guy on the pitching depth chart and a platoon of position players who are here for their gloves and not their bats. The Rockies just keep finding ways to win.

Colorado moved to 33-19 on the season, keeping their narrow lead over the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the NL West and staying just barely ahead of the Washington Nationals for best winning percentage in the National League.