Field Level Media
Aug 22, 2019
Dexter Fowler's two-run homer in the seventh inning rallied the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting Colorado Rockies 6-5 on Thursday night.
Marcell Ozuna and Paul DeJong also hit two-run home runs for the Cardinals, who won for the 10th time in 13 games. They remained a half-game behind the first-place Chicago Cubs in the National League Central.
Cardinals reliever Dominic Leone (1-0), just recalled from Triple-A Memphis, pitched a scoreless seventh inning to earn the victory.
Carlos Martinez, the fifth Cardinals pitcher, worked around two ninth-inning walks to earn his 15th save.
Rockies reliever Yency Almonte (0-1) allowed Fowler's decisive homer and suffered the loss.
Both starting pitchers lasted six innings. German Marquez allowed four runs on six hits for the Rockies and Miles Mikolas allowed five runs on eight hits for the Cardinals.
The Rockies got to Mikolas for two runs in the second inning. Singles by Daniel Murphy, Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon produced one run and Tony Wolters' sacrifice fly scored the second.
The Cardinals tied the game 2-2 in the fourth inning when Paul Goldschmidt hit a single and Ozuna launched the ball into the third deck of the left field stands.
That was Ozuna's first home run in 12 games.
Nolan Arenado answered that blast in the fifth inning with a three-run homer that gave the Rockies a 5-2 lead. Arenado has seven homers and 13 RBIs in his last 10 games.
But DeJong's homer with one on in the sixth inning to cut Colorado's margin to 5-4 and Fowler's two-run blast in the seventh pushed the Cardinals ahead 6-5.
Fowler has driven home 15 runs in his last 11 games.
Before the game, the Cardinals sent reliever Junior Fernandez to Memphis to make room for Leone.
The Rockies also made a pitching adjustment before this game. To replace injured starter Kyle Freeland, the Rockies summoned reliever Wes Parsons from Triple-A Albuquerque.
--Field Level Media