The Cardinals were seemingly on the cusp of that one big hit necessary to jump-start their offense. Instead, those would-be hits too often found their way into outfielders’ gloves.
If it wasn’t Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Gorman absolutely smashing balls that were caught on the warning track, then it was Matt Carpenter getting a home run robbed from him by 6-foot-5 outfielder.
That’s the kind of night, offensively, the Cardinals experienced in a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies in the first game of a four-game series in front of an announced crowd of 33,332 Thursday night at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals (29-32) left 10 men on base. While they collected eight hits, they went just 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
Rookie shortstop Masyn Winn (2 for 5) was the only Cardinals with a multi-hit game. Nolan Arenado tied his career high with three walks. Goldschmidt (1 for 5) singled in the ninth inning and has reached base in 23 consecutive games.
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Cardinals ace Sonny Gray turned in his shortest outing of the season and has now lost back-to-back starts for the first time as a member of the club. He allowed three runs on two hits and a season-high four walks in 4â…” innings. He also struck out five batters.
Gray (7-4) allowed just four walks in his first four starts of the season, but he’s walked seven across his past two starts.
The Rockies (22-40) went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
Opportunistic offense
The Cardinals scored a pair of runs in the sixth inning, just after the Rockies went to their bullpen.
Up until that point, the closest the Cardinals game to scoring a run was when Carpenter had a solo home run robbed from him in the fifth inning when Rockies right fielder Michael Toglia jumped and reached over the right field wall to snare the ball and pull it back over.
In the sixth, the Cardinals smacked four hits (all singles) and benefited from a throwing error as they scored a pair of runs and made it a one-run game.
Gorman singled to start the inning and scored three batters later when Ivan Herrera hit a grounder and the Rockies failed to turn a double play. The errant throw from shortstop Ezequiel Tovar allowed Gorman to score from second base. Michael Siani hit a two-out RBI single that scored Herrera.
1 pitch makes big difference
The Rockies scored the game’s first run in the third inning despite registering just one hit, a single.
Gray issued a one-out walk to Jake Cave after a 2-2 pitch appeared to be in the strike zone. Instead, home plate umpire Scott Barry called it a ball. The plate appearance continued, and Cave walked after an 11-pitch battle.
Cave went from first to third on a single by No. 9 hitter Toglia, and he scored one batter later on an infield grounder to Gorman. The Cardinals attempted to turn a double play on the grounder, but Charlie Blackmon beat out the throw to first base. Cave scored on the play.
Gray had thrown 20 pitches through the first two innings. He threw 26 pitches in the third inning alone.
Sonny sits in 5th
Gray could not complete five innings after he ran into trouble in the top of the fifth. He allowed two runs on a single, two wild pitches and three walks in the frame.
The Rockies kept the pressure on with three stolen bases in the inning, and Gray got called for a pitch clock violation that resulted in an automatic ball. That plate appearance ultimately ended in a walk.
The only hit in the inning, a single by Brenton Doyle, led off the inning. Then Cave walked for the second time, with the help of an automatic ball. A double steal put both runners in scoring position. Then Toglia’s grounder to first base drove in Doyle to give the Rockies a two-run edge.
Cave advanced to third on the grounder to first, and he scored on a wild pitch to make it a three-run advantage for the Rockies. Gray walked the last two batters he faced in the inning, Blackmon and Tovar. Left-hander Matthew Liberatore took over out of the bullpen.
Arenado to work through slump
Arenado, the Cardinals’ All-Star third baseman, faced his former club for the first time this season. In eight seasons with the Rockies, Arenado earned five All-Star selections and eight Gold Glove Awards.
This season, Arenado has been out of sorts at the plate. A career .285 hitter who hit at least 30 home runs and drove in at least 100 RBIs for seven consecutive full-length seasons, Arenado has displayed a lack of power early this season. He hit just one home run in his first 32 games, though he batted .279 during that span.
Recently, Arenado’s struggles at the plate had spread beyond a lack of power. He’s batted just .173 in his past 13 games. On the club’s recent road trip to Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Houston, Arenado hit three home runs and bumped his season total up to six.
He has played in 59 of 61 games this season.
“I’ve been able to have really good conversations with him as far as the work over the next four days leading into the off-day and how he’s thinking through that,†Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said before the game. “But it’s just continuing to take steps to where he feels like Nolan. If there’s anybody that’s going to work really hard towards that, it’s him.â€
When Cardinals veteran first baseman Goldschmidt struggled through a prolonged slump at the plate earlier this season, Marmol planned to give Goldschmidt back-to-back “work days†where he wasn’t in the lineup. One of the games got rained out.
“Nado likes working through it for the most part,†Marmol said of the difference in approach. “A little bit different personalities there, so you don’t treat them the same. Nolan likes to work through it. He’s going to want the at-bats right now. We bought him a day on that road trip.â€
Old friends in town for weekend
The Rockies currently have a pair of former Cardinals in their starting rotation in right-hander Dakota Hudson (2-7, 5.25) and left-hander Austin Gomber (1-3, 3.06).
Hudson pitched in the Rockies’ loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday. He did not factor in the decision. He will not pitch during the four-game set at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals nontendered Hudson, a former supplemental first-round draft pick (34th overall in 2016), in November. He’d spent his entire career in the Cardinals organization.
Hudson signed a free-agent deal with the Rockies in January.
Gomber is in his fourth season with the Rockies. The left-hander went to the Rockies as part of the trade that brought Arenado to the Cardinals on Feb. 1, 2021.
In four career appearances (two starts) against the Cardinals, Gomber has gone 1-1 with a 6.35 ERA. Last season, he tossed six scoreless innings in a win against the Cardinals on Aug. 6 at Busch Stadium.