(TSX / STATS) — DENVER — The Colorado Rockies are proving methodically efficient when it comes to winning series, and they used a late rally to chalk up another one Sunday.
A four-run eighth inning steered the Rockies to an 8-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Coors Field.
The victory in the rubber game enabled Colorado to win its fourth consecutive series and improve to 12-2-2 in series this season. The Rockies are 5-1 in rubber games and 8-0-1 in their past nine series, tying a franchise record set in 2007 of nine consecutive series without a loss.
The Rockies (33-19) last lost a series when they dropped three of four games to the visiting Washington Nationals from April 24-27.
“That’s all we want to do is win series and keep things going one at a time,” said Colorado catcher Tony Wolters, who singled home the final two runs in the eighth. “We walk around (before games), everyone’s like, ‘We’re winning today, let’s go.’ That’s our mindset. We’re not just saying it, we’re doing it.”
Gerardo Parra, who tied his season-high with three hits, belted a three-run homer in the fourth inning, putting the Rockies ahead 4-0. Jedd Gyorko, Greg Garcia and Tommy Pham offset Parra’s blast with solo homers, cutting the lead to one run before Colorado pulled away in the eighth.
St. Louis’ Paul DeJong homered on the first swing of his first major league at-bat in the ninth.
The win before a sellout crowd of 48,372 — Colorado’s fourth sellout of the season — was the sixth in eight games and 10th in 14 for the Rockies. The Cardinals (24-23) last won consecutive games on May 13-14 and have since gone 3-8.
The Rockies pushed across the first run of the game in the third. Back-to-back, one-out singles by Parra and Ian Desmond put runners at the corners. Alexi Amarista smashed a hard grounder to third baseman Gyorko, who was positioned at the lip of the infield.
After the ball deflected of his glove, Gyroko had no play at the plate on Parra, who was running on contact, so Gyorko took the sure out at first.
DJ LeMahieu opened the Rockies’ eighth with a single and took second on Matt Bowman’s wild pitch. Nolan Arenado grounded to shortstop Aledyms Diaz, whose throw to third was not in time to get LeMahieu.
Mark Reynolds flared an opposite-field, run-scoring single into short right field. Parra grounded a ball to the drawn-in Diaz. The shortstop threw to third to try to get Arenado, who was able to slide back to the base headfirst ahead of the throw and leave the bases loaded.
That play set up pinch hitter Carlos Gonzalez’s sacrifice fly, and Wolters then stroked an opposite-field two-run single to left.
Colorado reliever Chris Rusin had allowed one home run in 27 innings in his first 17 appearances, but he gave up Pham’s fifth homer that trimmed the Rockies’ lead to 4-3 in the seventh.
Solo homers by Gyorko, his eighth, and Garcia, his first, off German Marquez in a three-batter span matched the number of homers the Colorado starter had yielded in 35 innings in six previous starts this season.
Marquez (4-2) lasted 5 2/3 innings, departing after Eric Fryer drove a double into the gap in left-center field. Rockies manager Bud Black summoned Rusin to face pinch hitter Jhonny Peralta, who lined to center. Marquez was charged with two runs on eight hits.
Marquez wiggled out of trouble in the fifth, getting Matt Carpenter to ground out and leave the bases loaded.
Lynn (4-3) gave up six hits and a season-high-tying four runs in five innings.
In the fourth, Parra lofted Lynn’s 1-0 slider into the right field stands for his sixth homer, a three-run shot after Arenado opened the inning with a walk and Reynolds singled. Parra is one homer shy of his 2016 total.
DeJong, who landed in Denver in the second inning, made his major league debut in the ninth. Pinch-hitting against closer Greg Holland, DeJong drove a 1-0 fastball into the left field stands, becoming the ninth Cardinals player to homer in his first big league at-bat.
DeJong was going to pinch-hit in the eighth, but the inning ended when he was on deck. So he went back to the indoor cage to take some swings before facing Holland, who was pitching for the first time in six days but is 19-for-19 in save situations this season. He entered in a non-save situation Sunday.
“I was just looking for a fastball early in the count,” DeJong said. “First pitch, ball. I was just looking for something down the middle and got what I would want to get and put a good swing on it. I was pretty amped. I couldn’t really feel my legs. I just kept watching it, and it kept going. It was amazing.”
NOTES: Before selecting the contract of INF Paul DeJong from Triple-A Memphis, the Cardinals placed 2B Kolten Wong (left elbow stiffness) on the 10-day disabled list retroactive to Saturday.. … Cardinals RHP John Brebbia, who joined the team Saturday, made his major league debut and got Trevor Story to fly out to end the eighth. … Rockies RHP Jon Gray (left foot stress fracture) threw 30-35 pitches in his first bullpen session without wearing a walking boot. … Rockies RF Carlos Gonzalez was not in the starting lineup after playing 11 games in 10 straight days since a May 17 rainout at Minnesota.
Photo credit – Associated Press /David Zalubowski / Denver, CO