There was a moment there in the sixth inning as the Colorado Rockies busily tried to hand the game Saturday to the Cardinals that the stars aligned.
Paul Goldschmidt had been given a gift as the Rockies chucked a bases-loaded bouncer toward first base into a bases-clearing error that tied the game. With two outs and his highly decorated peer now in scoring position, Nolan Arenado delivered with an RBI single — just one All-Star corner infielder taking advantage of the opportunity to drive in another All-Star corner infielder and give the Cardinals the lead, all according to design.
It was fitting.
It was also fleeting.
The Cardinals could not outrun a ragged game that included too little offense without help from Colorado and too many misplays defensively that boosted the Rockies to a 6-5 victory at Busch Stadium. The decisive hit came in the seventh inning with Ezequiel Tovar’s two-run homer against reliever Andrew Kittredge, but fixating on the lead lost by the bullpen misses the candy rack of other contributors. Errors led to runs earlier, stolen bases permitted led to a tie game, and it’s errant to absolve the offense for not rocking the opportunities it had.
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“They tried to hand us the game,†manager Oliver Marmol said. “And they almost did.â€
Marmol declined to name a starter for Sunday’s game, though Kyle Gibson’s nimble work sidestepping errors to finish six innings means both lefty Matthew Liberatore and right-hander Andre Pallante are available. Marmol previously said the starter would come from options already on the roster. The choice takes on heightened importance as the Cardinals try to avoid what they’ve already done at Busch Stadium — lose a series to teams that are inferior in the standings.
The Cardinals’ previously lost a home series to the worst team in the American League, the Chicago White Sox, and the loss Saturday put them 3-5 at home against three of the worst teams in the National League. They had been better — winning eight of 11 at home before Colorado arrived — but are overall 4-7 at Busch against the Mets, White Sox, and the Class of 1993 clubs, Rockies and Marlins.
That group’s combined winning percentage is 0.349.
The Cardinals have scored the fewest runs at home of any NL team, and on Saturday with a paid attendance of 34,577 had the fewest in the crowd ever at Busch III for a full-capacity, regularly scheduled weekend game. In years to come, more won't claimed to have been there.
Colorado starter Ryan Feltner delivered his first pitch with the highest ERA of any starter to qualify for the ERA title in the majors. It winked at the Cardinals’ dugout from the scoreboard, a bright, tempting 6.22. And all it did was fall. By the start of the fourth, he’d trimmed it down to 5.94 and retired all nine Cardinals he faced. He lopped a ½ run off it because all four runs he allowed in 5 1/3 innings were unearned.
“You go through the order and no one gets on, you’re just trying to get something going and we weren’t able to really do it,†Goldschmidt said. “We didn’t have much hard contact at him, and he didn’t walk guys. So it was not a good recipe for scoring runs.â€
Not until a dash of shoddy defense.
Matt Carpenter hit a solo homer to leadoff the seventh inning and move him past his pal Matt Holliday and into 12th all-time in Cardinals history with 157 homers. An inning earlier, his cagey walk against Feltner helped put a rally in motion. Dylan Carlson followed with a single, and errors did most of the rest. Colorado second baseman Alan Trejo flubbed a potential double that left the bases loaded for Goldschmidt. His chopper was fielded by first baseman Elehuris Montero, a slugger who went to Colorado in the Arenado trade, and then flung into left field.
All three runners on base scored to tie the game, 3-3.
“I hit a groundball that easily could have been an out or a double play or something,†Goldschmidt said. “We were fortunate there to get the three runs. Then Arenado had a great at-bat to put us ahead. Obviously, when you get help you want to take advantage of it. We kind of were able to do that.â€
But not much more.
Of the Cardinals’ 63 games, 49 have been decided by five or fewer runs, and 33 have been decided somewhere between two and four. The bullpen has been busy in part because the offense has not. At the core of the Cardinals’ inconsistent production is the corners. Arenado doubled his homer total to six with three on the recent road trip. Despite hitting .295 at home, he has one homer at Busch. Goldschmidt has hit .198 at home with a .321 slugging percentage.
“Neither of us has played as well as we’re capable of,†Goldschmidt said Saturday evening in the home clubhouse. “We’re doing everything we can. If we can play better it will definitely help the team.â€
Or leave them less vulnerable to their errors, less reliant on others’ errors, less exposed to one of the league’s top bullpens getting taxed.
Marmol took issue with a reporter’s question about the team’s errors — specifically when asked about a lack of crispness on the details, not just the errors. The Cardinals have committed at least two errors in five of the past seven games, and there were misplays not logged as errors Saturday. Catcher Ivan Herrera threw wildly to second when, because of a walk at the plate, the runner was free to take second. Herrera’s throw allowed the Rockies to take an extra base that became a 1-0 lead.
“We need to improve it,†he said. “Defense has not been good. Gibby did a really nice job of pitching through some noise. … We’re in a little bit of a rut where there are a lot of mistakes being made on the field.â€
The Rockies stole two bases on Herrera in the seventh to set up the game-tying rally on Brenton Doyle’s single. Tovar followed with the punctuation on his career day. He hit home runs in back-to-back at-bats and finished with a career-high four hits and career-high four RBIs. The two-run shot off Kittredge came with an 0-2 count on a pitch the right-hander would try again.
“Based on the previous swing,†Kittredge explained. “I threw a slider out of the zone, down and away, and he goes down and dives out over and fouls it off. Pretty good swing. The normal reaction to read that is we have to come hard (and) in here. That’s what I did. If we get nitpicky, maybe I wanted the ball down.â€
That pitch determined the score.
It didn’t have to decide the game.
“We’re putting runs on the board, getting back in the game just like we did in the sixth,†Gibson said. “I don’t think there’s any give up. We’re trying to stay in every single game for all nine innings. We’ve been doing a pretty good job for the most part. This one hurts a little bit.
“But come out (Sunday) and get a split of the series.â€