Ivan Herrera hit a solo home run and right-hander Kyle Leahy pitched five effective innings Friday night for the St. Louis Cardinals in a 3-2 victory against the visiting Colorado Rockies.
St. Louis recorded just four hits yet won for the fourth time in five games to get back to .500. The Cardinals are hanging around in the National League wild-card race but are on the outside of current projected postseason field.
Leahy (8-4) allowed two runs and eight hits to go along with eight strikeouts and no walks. It was the eighth straight start in which he held the opponent to two runs or fewer.
Herrera’s home run in the third, against right-hander Ryan Feltner (4-6), gave the Cards a 3-1 lead. It was just his third homer in his past 40 games but his 13th on the season.
Feltner gave up four hits and all three runs in 5 1/3 innings while striking out two and walking three.
St. Louis took a 2-1 lead in the second on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Nathan Church and Bryan Torres. Masyn Winn tagged up from second to reach third on Church’s fly ball and scored one pitch later on Torres’ sac fly.
The Cardinals bullpen tossed four scoreless innings of two-hit ball, with right-hander Riley O’Brien getting the final three outs for his 28th save.
Troy Johnston drove in both runs for Colorado, both coming on groundouts to second base, in the second and fourth innings.
Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker returned to the lineup and played right field after missing two games because of a sore knee. He went 1-for-4 with an infield single in the fifth.
The Rockies had 10 hits but went 2-for-20 with runners on base, 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. They fell to 45-71, the worst record in the National League.
–Field Level Media
