This story was originally published by Dead Spin
Ryan McMahon hit a tiebreaking double in a five-run eighth inning, and the Colorado Rockies used a two-out rally to beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-8 on Thursday in Denver.
Charlie Blackmon homered and drove in three runs for Colorado, which began the comeback after Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-6) retired the first two batters of the eighth.
With Colorado trailing 8-5, Jake Cave tripled and scored on Aaron Schunk’s second single of the day. Blackmon walked, Ezequiel Tovar tied the game with a double to center and McMahon doubled to right to score Tovar. Michael Toglia capped the rally with a double off the wall in center.
Toglia finished with three hits and McMahon, Tovar, Cave and Schunk contributed two hits apiece. Angel Chivilli (2-3) pitched one inning of relief and Seth Halvorsen picked up his second save for the Rockies (61-98).
The comeback spared starter Kyle Freeland the loss after he allowed six runs — four earned — on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings. St. Louis starter Kyle Gibson gave up five runs (four earned) on five hits in four innings.
Lars Nootbaar and Paul Goldschmidt hit back-to-back home runs and Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages also went deep for the Cardinals (81-78). Nootbaar, Jordan Walker and Victor Scott II finished with two hits apiece for St. Louis.
Nootbaar and Goldschmidt homered back to back in the first to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. It was Nootbaar’s 11th of the season and the 22nd for Goldschmidt.
Colorado answered in the bottom of the inning on Toglia’s RBI single and Nolan Jones’ run-scoring double.
St. Louis struck again in the second. Scott singled and scored when Jones misplayed Masyn Winn’s drive to left. Nootbaar drove in Winn with a double, and Jones’ second error of the inning, on Goldschmidt’s liner to left, allowed Nootbaar to score and make it 5-2.
Blackmon hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning, his 12th, and he tied it in the fourth with a sacrifice fly.
Herrera’s solo homer, his fifth of the season, put the Cardinals back in front 6-5 in the fifth, and Pages’ two-run shot in the eighth, his seventh of the year, made it 8-5.
–Field Level Media
