Cardinals Lose Early Lead, Fall to Rockies 10-7

THE CARDINAL CHRONICLE
Cardinals Lose Early Lead, Fall to Rockies 10-7
St. Louis, MO
By Ray Mileur

The St. Louis Cardinals had the start they wanted Saturday night at Coors Field.

They did not have the finish.

Joshua Báez and Iván Herrera homered, St. Louis built a 3-0 lead, and the Cardinals looked like they were in position to take control of the weekend series against the Colorado Rockies.

Then the fifth inning happened.

Colorado scored six runs in the bottom of the fifth, added four more in the seventh, and held off a late St. Louis push to beat the Cardinals, 10-7, Saturday night in Denver.

It was another Coors Field game that got sideways fast.

The Cardinals entered the night at .500, coming off Friday’s wild 7-6 comeback win over Colorado and still trying to build on the momentum they created by taking two of three from the Dodgers in Los Angeles. For four innings Saturday, they had the game where they wanted it.

Matthew Liberatore had kept the Rockies scoreless.

Báez had supplied the first run.

Herrera had added a two-run homer.

The Cardinals led by three.

Then the game turned completely.

St. Louis struck first in the second inning when Báez drove a solo home run to left field, his seventh homer of the season. The swing gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead and continued to show the raw power that has made Báez one of the most intriguing young bats in the organization.

When he gets to it, it goes.

That was the case again Saturday.

The Cardinals added on in the fifth. Nathan Church reached ahead of Herrera, and Herrera drove a two-run home run to center field, his 16th of the season, pushing the lead to 3-0.

At that point, St. Louis had the scoreboard, the early power and a starter who had avoided trouble.

But no lead is safe at Coors Field.

That was proven again in the bottom of the fifth.

Colorado began chipping away against Liberatore. Cole Carrigg scored on Troy Johnston’s single to right, with Johnston advancing to second on a throwing error by Jordan Walker. Adael Amador followed with a single to left, scoring Johnston and cutting the Cardinals’ lead to 3-2.

The inning kept moving.

A wild pitch by Liberatore allowed Amador to score and tied the game, 3-3. Then the Rockies took advantage of more chaos on the bases. Ezequiel Tovar stole home as Jake McCarthy stole second, and a throwing error by Leo Bernal allowed McCarthy to move to third.

Just like that, Colorado had the lead.

That was the kind of sequence that changes a game and leaves a team chasing everything it had just controlled.

Liberatore exited, but the Rockies were not finished. Connor Norby singled to right off Luis Gastelum, scoring McCarthy and making it 5-3. TJ Rumfield followed with a double to center, scoring Norby and stretching the Colorado lead to 6-3.

Six runs.

One inning.

A 3-0 Cardinals lead had become a three-run deficit.

That was the game’s turning point.

Liberatore finished with 4 1/3 innings, allowing five runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out three. The line does not show a disaster through four innings, but it shows how quickly things fell apart once Colorado found traffic and the Cardinals began helping the inning along.

That has been the frustration with Liberatore.

There are stretches where the ability is visible. There are also stretches where the inning gets away before the Cardinals can stop it. Saturday night, that inning was the fifth, and it changed everything.

The Cardinals answered in the sixth.

Leo Bernal reached and Báez followed by getting aboard, putting St. Louis in position to get back into the game. Nolan Gorman then doubled to right, scoring Bernal and moving Báez to third. Thomas Saggese followed with a sacrifice fly to right, bringing Báez home and cutting the deficit to 6-5.

That was a good response by the bottom of the order.

Bernal started it.

Báez was in the middle of it.

Gorman drove in a run.

Saggese got another home.

The Cardinals had pulled within one and had made the game manageable again.

Then the bullpen let it get away in the seventh.

Hancel Rincón took over and ran into trouble. Tovar and McCarthy reached, Norby was hit by a pitch, and Hunter Goodman delivered the biggest hit of the inning, a two-run single to left. Tovar and McCarthy scored, Norby moved to third, and Goodman advanced to second.

Colorado led, 8-5.

Brycen Mautz came in, but the inning continued. Carrigg singled to left, scoring Norby and moving Goodman to third. Zac Veen then put down a bunt that brought Goodman home, pushing the Rockies’ lead to 10-5.

That was the second crooked number of the night.

The first one flipped the game.

The second one buried the Cardinals.

At Coors Field, five runs down is not always over. But asking the offense to climb out of that hole after already battling back once was too much.

The Cardinals did not quit.

They made one more push in the ninth. Saggese scored on José Fermín’s double to center, trimming the deficit to 10-6. Herrera followed with a single to right, scoring Fermín and making it 10-7.

That brought the Cardinals closer.

It did not bring them all the way back.

Colorado closed it out, and St. Louis walked away with a loss that dropped the Cardinals back below .500 at 71-72.

That number keeps following this team.

Every time the Cardinals climb back to even, the next step becomes the hardest one. They took two of three from the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. They won a wild series opener in Colorado on Herrera’s ninth-inning homer. They had a chance Saturday to move above .500 and take the series.

Instead, they gave up 10 runs after taking a 3-0 lead.

That is the part that stings.

The offense did enough to win some nights. The Cardinals finished with seven runs and 13 hits. Báez homered, scored twice and continued to flash impact power. Herrera homered, singled late and drove in three. Gorman doubled in a run. Saggese drove in another. Fermín doubled home a run in the ninth. Church scored ahead of Herrera’s homer.

There were positive swings.

There was not enough pitching.

And there was not enough clean baseball.

The Cardinals committed two errors, both coming in that damaging fifth inning. Walker’s throwing error helped move Johnston into scoring position, and Bernal’s throwing error on the double steal allowed McCarthy to reach third after Tovar stole home.

Those plays mattered.

So did the wild pitch.

So did the inability to shut the inning down once Colorado started rolling.

The Rockies did not just hit their way back into the game. They ran their way back into it. They forced action. They made the Cardinals make plays. St. Louis did not make enough of them.

That is losing baseball.

Colorado finished with 10 runs on 11 hits. Goodman drove in two. Carrigg had multiple hits and drove in a run. Johnston and Amador produced run-scoring singles. Norby singled home a run. Rumfield doubled home another. Veen executed the bunt that pushed the lead to five.

The Rockies scored six in the fifth without needing a home run.

Then they scored four in the seventh by keeping pressure on the Cardinals’ bullpen.

It was not one swing.

It was a pileup.

That is what made it worse for St. Louis.

Friday night, Herrera rescued a game that had nearly slipped away. Saturday night, the Cardinals could not find another miracle. They got the ninth-inning rally started, but the earlier damage was too much.

This is the difference between a good week and a real run.

The Cardinals have shown they can play with good teams. They proved that in Los Angeles. They have shown they can get production from the young players. Báez, Bernal, Saggese, Church and others have made September more interesting. They have shown they can create offense in difficult places.

But the same old issues keep showing up.

A starter cannot finish the fifth.

The bullpen gives away separation.

The defense adds fuel to the inning.

The offense has to spend the rest of the night trying to climb back.

That formula is hard to survive in April.

In September, it is almost impossible.

The Cardinals are still alive enough to make the math matter, but they cannot keep giving away games against teams they should beat. Colorado is a dangerous place to play because of the ballpark, but the Rockies entered the night well out of contention. St. Louis needed to take advantage of that.

Instead, the Cardinals let a winnable game turn into another missed chance.

Now Sunday becomes the series.

The Cardinals can still leave Colorado with a series win. That matters. But after leading 3-0 Saturday and getting seven runs on 13 hits, this one will feel like a game they should have had.

The offense gave them a start.

The pitching and defense could not protect it.

The Rockies scored six in the fifth.

They added four in the seventh.

The Cardinals rallied late, but not enough.

Colorado beat St. Louis, 10-7.

And once again, the Cardinals are back below .500, trying to prove the next win can finally become the start of something more.

The Cardinal Chronicle
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