The Rockies spent much of Friday night letting opportunities slip away, then finally broke through in a four-run sixth inning that turned a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead.
TJ Rumfield added insurance with a 441-foot home run an inning later, and the bullpen carried the two-run advantage into the ninth.
Then it disappeared.
Jordan Romano opened the ninth with a walk, Connor Norby made a throwing error and Iván Herrera crushed a three-run homer to center as the Cardinals came back for a 7-6 win at Coors
Field.
Colorado fell to 54-87, while St. Louis improved to 71-71. Cade Winquest earned the win to improve to 1-0, Romano took the loss and fell to 0-3, and Riley O’Brien recorded his 36th save.
Feltner battles through five
Ryan Feltner’s final line was uneven, but there were stretches where his stuff looked quite good.
The right-hander allowed four runs on seven hits and three walks over five innings, striking out five while throwing 62 of his 95 pitches for strikes.
The changeup was his best pitch.
All five of Feltner’s strikeouts came on the changeup, which generated three whiffs on seven swings.
He looked sharp immediately, retiring the Cardinals in order in the first and finishing Iván Herrera with an 84.4 mph changeup for a swinging strikeout.
The second inning was much more difficult.
Jordan Walker opened with a single and Leo Bernal walked before Nolan Gorman tied the game with an RBI single. Thomas Saggese then won a seven-pitch battle with Feltner and doubled home Joshua Báez to put St. Louis ahead 2-1.
Feltner responded with an excellent third, needing just nine pitches to retire Herrera, Alec Burleson and Walker in order. Burleson chased a changeup below the zone for strike three, while Walker took another one to end the inning.
A leadoff walk to Bernal created more traffic in the fourth, but Feltner retired the next three hitters.
The fifth finally got away from him.
Nathan Church opened with a soft single, Bryan Torres walked and Herrera reached on a 104.2 mph grounder to short. Burleson followed with a high chopper that Carrigg charged, but the ball kicked off the heel of his glove as a runner crossed in front of him. It was scored an RBI single.
The Rockies did make one excellent defensive play in the middle of the inning.
Walker lifted a relatively shallow fly to center, where Jake McCarthy caught it moving toward the infield and made a strong throw toward home. TJ Rumfield cut the throw off after the run scored and helped catch Herrera between second and third for a double play.
Bernal then doubled at 109.8 mph, although McCarthy made a sliding stop in deep right-center that kept the ball from reaching the wall and prevented another run from scoring in that moment.
Feltner eventually got Báez to end the inning.
His four-seamer still averaged 94.4 mph and touched 96.6, while the changeup gave him a legitimate finishing pitch. The command was not consistent enough to keep St. Louis from creating traffic.
Pallante keeps Colorado quiet
The Rockies scored before recording a hit.
McCarthy opened the bottom of the first with a four-pitch walk, stole second, moved to third on Mickey Moniak’s groundout and scored on Hunter Goodman’s sacrifice fly.
Colorado had chances for much more against Andre Pallante.
Carrigg opened the second with a triple and never moved the final 90 feet. Norby grounded out, Troy Johnston walked, Adael Amador sacrificed Johnston to second and Zac Veen grounded out to end the inning.
Goodman and Rumfield then drew consecutive two-out walks in the third before Carrigg grounded out on the first pitch he saw.
Pallante eventually settled in.
Norby singled to begin the fourth, but Johnston grounded into a double play. Pallante then worked a clean fifth to finish five innings with only one run allowed on two hits and four walks.
He struck out just one and generated only four whiffs on 33 swings, but Colorado did almost nothing with the contact it made. The Rockies averaged just 74.4 mph on 15 balls in play against him.
Pallante had retired seven straight and had thrown only 72 pitches through five.
Colorado breaks through in the sixth
Hancel Rincon entered for his major-league debut and got Goodman to line out.
Then the inning came apart.
Rumfield drove a ball into right and raced into third. St. Louis challenged the safe call, but replay upheld it.
Rincon then threw a wild pitch that brought Rumfield home.
Carrigg followed by driving a ball into the right-center gap and never stopped running, coming all the way around for an inside-the-park home run to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Norby singled, and that ended Rincon’s debut after just one-third of an inning.
Justin Bruihl replaced him, but Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was still arguing with the umpires as the pitching change was made. The argument continued before play resumed, and Marmol kept yelling from the dugout until home-plate umpire Doug Eddings ejected him.
Once play resumed, Johnston doubled Norby to third and Amador tied the game with an RBI single to right.
Veen then gave Colorado the lead.
He missed his first attempt at a safety squeeze before getting the second bunt down toward the third-base side of the mound. Bruihl charged and shoveled the ball home with his glove, but Johnston was ruled safe.
The Cardinals had already used their replay challenge on Rumfield’s triple and could not challenge the play at the plate.
Colorado had turned a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead.
Manfredi and Rumfield build the lead
Mark Manfredi gave the Rockies exactly what they needed after Feltner.
The left-hander retired all six hitters he faced over two perfect innings and struck out two.
His fastball averaged 95 mph, nearly a full mile per hour above his season average, while his slider generated two whiffs on four swings.
Carrigg helped him finish the sixth.
With two outs, Carrigg ranged toward the middle on Church’s grounder, charged it, fielded it on the backhand and fired a strong throw to first that narrowly beat the runner.
Manfredi came back for the seventh and retired another three in order, ending his night by winning an eight-pitch battle with Burleson on a 94 mph fastball.
Then Rumfield gave the Rockies some breathing room.
Goodman drove a ball 382 feet to center but came up just short.
Rumfield did not.
He got a 2-0 sweeper and launched it 441 feet to right-center for his 15th home run, extending the lead to 6-4.
Jimmy Herget took over in the eighth and retired Walker and Bernal before Báez singled with two outs. Brennan Bernardino then came on to retire pinch-hitter Ramón Urías and preserve the two-run lead.
Colorado managed only a two-out infield single from Ezequiel Tovar in the bottom half.
The lead went to Romano.
Romano cannot close it
Romano opened the ninth with a seven-pitch walk to Saggese.
That was the first problem.
Church flew out, but Saggese stole second before José Fermín hit a slow ground ball toward third. Norby’s throw got away, putting runners at second and third with one out.
Herrera made the mistake hurt.
Romano left an 84.2 mph slider over the plate, and Herrera drove it 430 feet to center at 103.5 mph.
Three runs scored.
St. Louis led 7-6.
Romano retired only one hitter, allowing three runs — two earned — on one hit and one walk.
Colorado still had one last chance.
O’Brien opened the bottom of the ninth with three straight sweepers to Moniak.
Moniak swung through the third.
Goodman grounded out before Rumfield singled with two outs and Ryan Ritter entered to run for him. O’Brien then threw away a pickoff attempt, moving the tying run into scoring position.
Carrigg came to the plate.
O’Brien threw him three straight sweepers.
Carrigg swung through all three.
Game over.
Final thoughts
The Rockies spent the early innings creating opportunities without finishing them.
Carrigg’s leadoff triple went to waste in the second. Consecutive two-out walks produced nothing in the third. Colorado finished just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base.
Rumfield finished 3-for-4 with a triple, homer and two runs scored. Carrigg went 2-for-5 with a triple and an inside-the-park homer.
The defense had its moments too. McCarthy made multiple important plays in center, Amador made a slick backhand play up the middle and Carrigg made a strong play to finish Manfredi’s first inning.
Manfredi was excellent, and Herget and Bernardino kept the lead intact through the eighth.
The Rockies did enough to erase a three-run deficit and build a two-run lead.
They just could not finish it.
Up next
The Rockies and Cardinals continue their series Saturday night at Coors Field, with first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m. MDT.
Colorado will send Mason Adams to the mound for the third start of his major-league career. The right-hander enters 0-0 with a 3.00 ERA and 10 strikeouts.
St. Louis will counter with left-hander Matthew Liberatore, who enters 5-13 with a 5.41 ERA and 141 strikeouts.
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