Nolan Gorman drove in three runs to lead the St. Louis Cardinals past the visiting Colorado Rockies 5-1 Wednesday for their third victory in a row.
The Cardinals have won 12 of their past 13 home games and 14 of 18 games overall. The Rockies have dropped four straight, including the first two contests in the current three-game series.
St. Louis starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery (6-3) allowed one run on six hits in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out eight batters and walked none while improving to 3-0 in three starts since arriving from the New York Yankees in an Aug. 2 trade.
Andre Pallante pitched 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the Cardinals, and Giovanny Gallegos handled the ninth. Brendan Donovan led St. Louis with three hits, and Paul Goldschmidt and Gorman had two hits apiece.
Rockies starting pitcher German Marquez (6-10) gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks in six innings. He fanned four. Jose Iglesias collected two hits for Colorado.
The Cardinals struck first. Lars Nootbaar walked leading off the first inning, Donovan hit an infield single and Nolan Arenado and Gorman hit RBI ground-rule doubles for a 2-0 lead.
The Rockies cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third inning on singles by Elehuris Montero, Brian Serven and Charlie Blackmon. Montgomery escaped further trouble when Brendan Rodgers grounded into a double play.
The Cardinals threatened in the fourth inning when Corey Dickerson hit a leadoff double and took third base on a wild pitch. Dylan Carlson walked with two outs, but Nootbaar popped out to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, the Cardinals pushed their lead to 3-1 on singles by Donovan and Goldschmidt ahead of Gorman’s RBI forceout grounder.
The Rockies had another scoring opportunity in the sixth. Montgomery hit Blackmon and allowed Rodgers’ single before C.J. Cron grounded into a double play.
Pallante came on to get Jose Iglesias to hit an inning-ending groundout.
The Cardinals made it 4-1 in the seventh inning. Nootbaar was hit by a pitch leading off, Goldschmidt walked with one out and Gorman hit a two-out RBI single.
The hosts pushed the lead to 5-1 in the eighth inning when Andrew Knizner and Nootbaar drew walks and Donovan hit a RBI double.
–Field Level Media
