The Colorado Rockies needed a little bit of everything Saturday night in St. Louis, and Jake McCarthy provided most of it.
McCarthy went 4-for-5 with two home runs, three RBI, four runs scored, and two stolen bases as the Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 8-6. Colorado improved to 46-71, while St. Louis fell to 58-59.
It was not a particularly clean win. The Rockies ran themselves into two early outs on the bases, Kyle Freeland had to navigate traffic without the swing-and-miss stuff he showed in his
previous start, and the bullpen spent much of the second half protecting a shrinking lead.
But Colorado also turned 11 hits into eight runs, went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position and kept finding ways to answer.
McCarthy’s two home runs supplied the loudest moments. His speed might have supplied the most important one.
Freeland battles without the whiffs
Freeland’s encore to his first career complete game looked very different.
After holding Kansas City to one run while generating 19 whiffs in his previous start, Freeland worked 4.1 innings against St. Louis, allowing five hits and three runs, only one earned, with three walks and three strikeouts. He needed 101 pitches to get there.
The pitch mix was more balanced this time. Freeland leaned most heavily on his knuckle curve at 29%, followed by the four-seam fastball at 22%, cutter at 20%, sinker at 13%, and sweeper and changeup at 8% each.
The sinker remained more prominent than its 7% season usage, but this was not the same kind of outing that overwhelmed Kansas City.
Most notably, the misses were not there.
Freeland generated eight whiffs on 44 swings. Five came against the cutter, while his knuckle curve produced only one whiff on 10 swings. Without many empty swings, his margin for error became smaller whenever his command wavered.
For much of the night, he compensated by limiting the quality of contact.
The first inning illustrated both the effectiveness and frustration of his outing. Freeland retired the first two Cardinals and appeared to have Alec Burleson struck out for the third out, but the pitch got past Hunter Goodman for a passed ball. Iván Herrera, who had doubled earlier in the inning, advanced to third while Burleson reached.
José Fermín then pulled a full-count knuckle curve down the third-base line for a two-run double, turning what looked like a scoreless inning into a 2-1 St. Louis lead.
Freeland settled down from there. He worked a clean second inning, and Kyle Karros helped him in the third by charging Jordan Walker’s slow roller and making the throw across the diamond on the move. Freeland later struck out Burleson after showing him four different pitch types, finishing him with a knuckle curve below the zone.
The fourth was where things began to get more difficult.
A walk, a single, a groundout and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs. JJ Wetherholt then hit a 104.6 mph liner to center, but Cole Carrigg was positioned well enough to make the catch and end the inning.
That was an escape, not necessarily evidence that Freeland had rediscovered the dominance of his previous start.
His command deteriorated further in the fifth.
Herrera drove an 0-2 sweeper 106.4 mph for a double that deflected off Karros’ glove. Burleson followed with a nine-pitch walk, fouling off four consecutive two-strike pitches before finally reaching.
Freeland then got Fermín into a 1-2 count but could not finish him either. Fermín eventually walked on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, loading the bases and ending Freeland’s night at 101 pitches.
His stuff did not completely disappear as his workload climbed. His fastball velocity largely held. What eroded was his ability to consistently locate and finish hitters.
Freeland had to gut this one out.
For four-plus innings, he mostly did.
Rockies make Liberatore come to them
If the question entering the game was whether Colorado could avoid chasing Matthew Liberatore’s secondary pitches, the Rockies answered it pretty clearly.
Liberatore allowed five runs on nine hits over five innings, walking two and striking out three on 94 pitches.
Colorado chased just 22% of his pitches outside the zone. The Rockies did not allow Liberatore’s secondaries to dictate the at-bats. They made him come back toward the zone, and when he did, they did damage.
McCarthy required no such patience to begin the game.
He attacked Liberatore’s first pitch, a 95 mph four-seam fastball, and drove it 104.0 mph and 420 feet to right-center for his 12th home run of the season.
Colorado then spent two innings doing a pretty good job of undoing the early advantage.
Karros walked and stole second in the first before being doubled off on Goodman’s line drive. In the second, TJ Rumfield walked, advanced on a wild pitch and was doubled off when Willi Castro also ran on contact.
Two innings, two runners erased at second.
The third inning was where Colorado’s aggression started working for them instead of against them.
McCarthy beat out a chopper for an infield single, and Karros was hit by a pitch. The pair then executed a double steal, putting runners on second and third.
Carrigg followed by getting an 88 mph changeup from Liberatore and driving it 100.7 mph and 378 feet to center for a two-run double.
Carrigg immediately stole third and scored when Goodman dropped a single into right, giving Colorado a 4-2 lead.
The changeup continued to give Liberatore problems. Colorado put six of them in play, collected four hits and produced three hard-hit balls against the pitch.
Carrigg doubled again in the fifth, this time shooting a 94.8 mph ground ball down the third-base line. Rumfield followed with one of the better two-out at-bats of the game.
He took a cutter away, watched a slider bounce to get ahead 2-0, fouled off another slider and then handled a 93 mph sinker through the left side at 95.2 mph to score Carrigg.
That extended the lead to 5-2.
The contrast with Friday was hard to miss. Colorado collected 10 hits in the series opener but went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The Rockies generated traffic again Saturday, but this time they converted enough of it.
Liberatore’s velocity also declined as his outing progressed. His four-seam fastball averaged 94.9 mph in the first inning and 92.3 mph in the fifth.
That does not automatically mean fatigue was the reason Colorado got to him. But the Rockies made him work, rarely expanded the zone, and were ready when he came back over the plate.
McCarthy helps the Rockies finish it
Colorado added separation in the sixth because Ezequiel Tovar did something that does not always come naturally to an aggressive hitter.
With two outs and nobody on, Tovar worked Luis Gastelum to a 3-0 count. He took a strike, then held up on an 86.4 mph sweeper that finished well below and away from the zone for ball four.
That turned the lineup over.
McCarthy needed one pitch.
Gastelum threw a 94.1 mph four-seamer, and McCarthy launched it 105.3 mph and 417 feet to center for his second home run of the night.
The two swings were almost copies.
His first homer left the bat at 104.0 mph, traveled 420 feet and carried a 29-degree launch angle.
The second came off at 105.3 mph, traveled 417 feet and also had a 29-degree launch angle.
Both came on first-pitch fastballs.
The second made it 7-3, and Colorado eventually needed most of that cushion.
Juan Mejia inherited Freeland’s bases-loaded jam in the fifth and allowed one of the runners to score on Masyn Winn’s sacrifice fly. Carrigg nearly erased the run with a 97 mph throw home, but the one-hop throw presented Goodman with a difficult short hop that he could not secure.
Mejia then made his own inning more difficult with a wild pitch and a walk before Nathan Church hit a 104 mph grounder toward second. Castro handled the hard hop and recovered to throw to Rumfield for the final out.
Jimmy Herget allowed another run in the sixth before Parker Mushinski entered to face Burleson and got him to pop out in foul territory.
Mushinski stayed in for the seventh and had to work around more traffic after Fermín walked and Winn singled to open the inning. He retired the next three hitters without allowing either runner to score, stranding both and preserving a 7-4 lead.
Brennan Bernardino surrendered the biggest hit of the late innings when Walker demolished a changeup in the eighth.
Walker hit it 107.3 mph and 432 feet to left-center for his 23rd home run, cutting Colorado’s lead to 7-5.
Bernardino recovered.
Rumfield handled a 104 mph one-hop grounder from Herrera, and Bernardino eventually struck out Burleson with one of the better sequences of the night.
He threw Burleson five consecutive curveballs. Then, with the count full, Bernardino changed the look completely with a 90.7 mph sinker and froze him for strike three.
That sent the Rockies to the ninth with a two-run lead.
Then McCarthy showed why the two home runs only tell part of his story.
He dropped a drag bunt and beat Peter Strzelecki’s throw for his fourth hit. He stole second for his 20th stolen base of the season, then started creating problems simply by refusing to stay put.
McCarthy danced off second, shuffling farther toward third and forcing Strzelecki to account for him. The pressure eventually helped produce a balk that moved McCarthy to third.
“I love it. I absolutely love it. If that’s part of your game, we need to put pressure on teams and be able to do that. And really, nobody’s better than Jake at that” said Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer after the game.
Karros followed by driving a 92.5 mph sinker 101.5 mph and 370 feet toward left-center. Everson Pereira made an excellent leaping catch, but McCarthy jogged home on the sacrifice fly.
At the time, it looked like insurance.
A few minutes later, it looked much more important.
Jordan Romano allowed a 101.6 mph leadoff single to Fermín in the bottom of the ninth. Fermín stole second essentially uncontested and eventually scored when Church singled to right with two outs.
The lead was down to 8-6.
Without the run McCarthy helped manufacture in the top half, Colorado would have been protecting a one-run lead with the tying run on base.
Instead, Romano still had room.
He went right after pinch-hitter César Prieto. Romano landed a 92.4 mph four-seamer for a called strike, got a swing-through on a 94.8 mph four-seamer, then buried an 84.3 mph slider below the zone for the chase.
Ballgame.
Final thoughts
McCarthy’s power will deservedly lead the highlights. Two first-pitch home runs totaling 837 feet will do that.
McCarthy has swung at 47.3% of first pitches this season, a significant jump from 30.2% last season. His career rate is 37.8%, while the MLB average this season is 30.3%.
McCarthy beat out an infield hit in the third and stole third as part of the double steal that preceded Carrigg’s two-run double. Then, after Walker’s homer tightened the game in the eighth, McCarthy manufactured the most important insurance run of the night in the ninth.
Bunt single. Stolen base. Pressure that helped create a balk. Sacrifice fly.
Schaeffer pointed to more than one night when discussing McCarthy after the game.
“I mean, Jake’s been good for a long time for us here this year,” Schaeffer said. “He’s been one of the main catalysts for our wins and pushing us forward. He just looks awfully comfortable, and I’m happy that he’s having a good time playing baseball right now.”
Carrigg had a strong all-around night of his own. He doubled twice, drove in two runs, stole third, made the bases-loaded catch behind Freeland and nearly threw out a runner at home with a 97 mph throw.
Rumfield continued to show why there is more to his offensive game than a simple box-score line might suggest. He collected two hits, delivered the two-out RBI in the fifth and made several useful defensive plays at first.
Karros also had one of those games where the hit column misses much of what happened.
He reached base twice before taking his first swing, stole two bases and scored a run. Later, he hit two balls well without recording a hit, including the 101.5 mph sacrifice fly that provided Colorado’s final run.
And after going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position Friday, the Rockies went 3-for-8 Saturday and stranded only four runners. St. Louis went 3-for-16 and left 12 aboard.
Colorado did not play a perfect game.
Instead, it played a good one.
Up next
The Rockies and Cardinals will wrap up their three-game series Sunday afternoon at Busch Stadium.
Colorado will send Michael Lorenzen to the mound. The right-hander enters the finale 3-10 with a 6.94 ERA and 80 strikeouts this season.
St. Louis will counter with Michael McGreevy, who comes in 4-9 with a 3.59 ERA and 81 strikeouts.
First pitch is scheduled for 12:15 p.m. MDT.
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