Business as usual in St. Louis.
After beating the Cardinals 9-4 Friday night to end a 12-game drought at Busch Stadium, the Rockies fell 6-2 on Saturday night.
There were a couple of Colorado highlights. Third baseman Ryan McMahon hit the 100th homer of his career, crushing a 424-foot solo shot in the eighth off reliever Andre Pallante. In the second inning, center fielder Brenton Doyle made a sensational diving catch to rob Nolan Gorman of extra bases.
Ultimately, however, Colorado lost because it was unable to figure out Redbirds starter Steven Matz.
“Matz was OK, and his stuff is pretty good,” Rockies manager Bud Black told AT&T SportsNet. “In the end, we just couldn’t string enough hits together.”
The Rockies have owned Matz over the years. In eight previous starts with the Mets and Cardinals, the lefty was 1-6 with a 7.55 ERA vs. the Rockies. On April 10 at Coors Field, the Rockies rocked Matz for six runs on nine hits over 5 2/3 innings.
But the Rockies couldn’t solve Matz on Saturday night. They managed just one run on five hits, struck out six times and walked just once. Matz induced seven outs via ground balls.
Colorado’s run came in the fifth on a single by Brenton Doyle, a double by Jurickson Profar and a sacrifice fly by Ezequiel Tovar.
Rockies lefty Ty Blach couldn’t match Matz.
Blach entered the game on a nice little run. He had not allowed a run in two starts since getting recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. Blach wasn’t nearly as sharp Saturday night but he provided Colorado with a workmanlike performance, giving up four runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings. He struck out two and walked one.
Blach set down the first five batters he faced until Tyler O’Neill clobbered Blach’s 2-2 sinker into the left-centerfield seats to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead in the second. Blach handled heavy traffic in the third and fourth innings, escaping with just one run surrendered on Dylan Carlson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fourth.
But the Cardinals dinged Blach for two runs in the fifth, combining back-to-back singles by Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado with Wilson Contreras’ two-run double to give the Redbirds a 4-1 lead.
Black said that the Cardinals “figured some things out” in their third at-bat vs. Blach. The lefty said he tired a bit in the fifth inning.
“I felt like that was the first time I’ve thrown that many pitches in three months,” Blach told AT&T SportsNet after throwing 80 pitches, 54 for strikes. “I definitely was not quite as sharp as I was earlier in the game, and that’s a good lineup over there. They took advantage of a couple of pitches I left up over the plate.”
St. Louis extended its lead to 6-1 in the sixth on Tommy Edman’s two-run triple off Tommy Doyle. Doyle hurt his cause by issuing back-to-back walks to Carlson and Lars Nootbar.
The Rockies and Cardinals play the rubber match on Sunday afternoon. If the Rockies can pull off a victory, they will capture a series in St. Louis for the first time since sweeping them in four games in 2009. Since then, Colorado’s record in St. Louis is 7-36.
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