Brendan Rodgers belted a three-run homer and Ryan McMahon also went deep to power the host Colorado Rockies to an 8-6 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday in Denver.
Lucas Gilbreath (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning of relief and Daniel Bard picked up his 24th save for the Rockies.
Colorado center fielder Yonathan Daza left the game in the first inning with a left shoulder injury. He sustained the injury while making a diving catch on a liner from Nolan Arenado.
Paul Goldschmidt homered among his three hits and Nolan Gorman and Arenado also went deep for the Cardinals.
The Rockies got to St. Louis starter Dakota Hudson in the second inning. Hudson retired the first two batters before issuing consecutive walks to Garrett Hampson and Sam Hilliard. Brian Serven followed with a double that scored both runners to give Colorado a 2-0 lead.
The Cardinals answered in the fourth against German Marquez. Gorman led off the inning with his 13th home run of the season, and Goldschmidt followed with a double and scored on a single by Corey Dickerson.
That was all the runs the starters gave up before leaving. Hudson struck out six in five innings while Marquez also fanned six and left after 103 pitches over six frames.
It stayed tied until the seventh inning when Colorado broke it open and batted around against the St. Louis bullpen.
Jordan Hicks (3-6) retired the first batter before walking Hilliard and Serven. Genesis Cabrera relieved Hicks and gave up an RBI single to Charlie Blackmon to put the Rockies ahead. Jose Iglesias followed with a single to drive in Serven and Rodgers hit a three-run homer to make it 7-2.
McMahon went deep in Colorado’s next at-bat.
The Cardinals responded in the eighth against Alex Colome. Gorman led off with a walk, Goldschmidt belted his 27th homer of the season and Arenado followed with his 24th.
St. Louis loaded the bases in the ninth against Bard and Goldschmidt’s groundout brought home a run. Bard, however, struck out Arenado looking to end the game.
–Field Level Media
