DENVER – Adam Wainwright is a three-time All-Star and a World Series Champion. That was the pitcher that took the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field on Saturday night. Wainwright had complete control as the Cardinals shut down the Colorado Rockies 3-0.
Wainwright threw 109 pitches in seven innings of work, allowing just three hits and one walk with six strikeouts. The Righty improved to 10-1 in his career against Colorado with a sharp ERA of below 1.60 in 15 outings.
The Cardinals offense started the evening’s scoring with three singles in the third resulting in one run. One more the top of their lineup got cooking in the third inning with a two-run homer from Tommy Pham pushing their lead to 3-0.
The Rockies offense lacked a big inning and small ball against the visiting starter. Failing to advance a runner past second base until the eighth inning and only getting to second base twice in the first seven.
But as Wainwright exited, and the Cardinals went to their bullpen the Rockies offense started to work. Trevor Rosenthal had the rock as the Rockies started to roll in the eighth. A leadoff walk by a pinch-hitting Tony Wolters led him to second base following an error on softly hit Gerardo Parra ball, who was also up in the pinch. Charlie Blackmon struck out and went cold after a four-for-four performance on Friday. Blackmon fell flat and so did DJ LeMahieu but Nolan Arenado walked to keep the inning alive with two outs leaving the bases loaded for Carlos Gonzalez. CarGo, riding and 0-fer-the-last-two games after a hitting streak grounded out to the second baseman ending the Rockies biggest threat of the night.
The Final Boss, Seung-Hwan Oh shut it down in the ninth, leaving the Rockies scoreless and shutout by the Cardinals.
While this game might not look big right now as the Rockies are eight games ahead of their Midwest foes in the standings it could come back to bite them later in the season. Both the Cards and Rox are likely NL Wildcard teams, a win in the pre Memorial Day rubber match would go a long way to the Rockies’ fall hopes.
