The St. Louis Cardinals created a lot of scares and thrills en route to their 9-8 walk-off victory on Thursday night against the Colorado Rockies. On Friday night, the two teams faced off in game two of a four game series.
And it was much more one sided than the night before, as the Cardinals defeated the Rockies 7-0.
Prior to the game, the Cardinals made one last trade before the MLB Trade Deadline. They sent minor-league outfielder Malik Collymore to Milwaukee for pitcher Jonathan Broxton. The addition of Broxton brings a veteran presence to the Cardinals’ bullpen.
For Friday night’s match-up, the starting pitchers were Michael Wacha (11-4, 3.27), who was looking to get out of a slump over the past few starts, and Kyle Kendrick (4-11, 6.33).
Matt Carpenter led off the bottom of the first inning by hitting his 13th home run of the season, a solo shot to make it a quick 1-0 lead. Later, Kolten Wong and Jhonny Peralta hit back-to-back singles, bringing up Jason Heyward. A sacrifice fly then scored Wong to make it 2-0.
In the bottom of the second inning, LHP Aaron Laffey entered to pitch for Kendrick, who suffered an injury early in the game. On the other mound, Wacha kept the Rockies in check all night long, allowing a mere four hits.
The game remained 2-0 Cardinals until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the game was broken wide open.
It began with a one out ground-rule double by Randal Grichuk, which was followed by a walk issued to Wacha. Carpenter grounded out to second during the next at-bat. But Stephen Piscotty continued his hot streak, by hitting a two-out, two-RBI double, giving the Cardinals a 4-0 lead.
Christian Friedrich then came in to pitch for the Rockies. Wong singled to right, scoring Piscotty to make it 5-0. And Peralta put the final nail in the coffin when he hit a two-run home run, to give the Cardinals a 7-0 lead. It was Peralta’s 15th home run of the season.
Randy Choate entered the game in the top of the eighth inning to pitch for Wacha, whose final line of the game was: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 Ks, which was arguably his best performance in weeks.
In the top of the ninth, Seth Maness entered to close out the game. And with two runners on and two outs, Brandon Barnes popped out for the Rockies, as the Cardinals won 7-0. Wacha improves to 12-4, and is the second National League pitcher to reach 12 wins. It’s also the 10th shutout of the season for St. Louis. They improve to 66-37, as the Rockies drop to 43-58.
(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)
