Tanner Gordon tossed six strong innings in his first start since May 28, Ezequiel Tovar homered, and the Colorado Rockies shut out the St. Louis Cardinals 6-0 on Wednesday in Denver.
Gordon (2-2) was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque after fellow right-hander German Marquez (bicep tendinitis) was placed on the 15-day injured list. It is the first time in 12 career starts that Gordon, a rookie who made his major league debut in July 2024, has not allowed a run.
Jordan Beck, Hunter Goodman, Kyle Farmer and Austin Nola had two hits each for Colorado, which has won two straight home series after dropping the first 15 to begin the year. It was the Rockies’ first home shutout in 220 games, the longest in the modern era, according to the team’s broadcast.
Their last home shutout was a 2-0 win over the Athletics on July 30, 2023.
Willson Contreras and Jordan Walker doubled for the Cardinals, who totaled five hits and have started the second half of the season 1-5.
Colorado used a barrage of one-out base hits to take control in the second inning against starter Andre Pallante. Ryan McMahon walked, Tovar flew out and Nola singled to put runners on the corners. The Rockies then used a string of singles to take the lead.
Farmer knocked in McMahon with a single up the middle, Adael Amador drove in Nola with a hit to left, Tyler Freeman then brought home Farmer with a single to right and Amador scored on Mickey Moniak’s single to right.
Gordon made the lead stand. He worked around a walk in the third inning, gave up a two-out double to Walker in the fourth and induced three straight groundouts in the fifth. Gordon ended his afternoon with two more groundouts in the sixth after Contreras’ one-out double. He finished with four hits and three walks allowed with three strikeouts in his six innings.
The Rockies added another run in the fifth off of Pallante when Freeman led off with a walk, went to second on Goodman’s one-out single and scored on Beck’s double that deflected off the glove of shortstop Masyn Winn to make it 5-0.
Pallante (5-7) allowed five runs on eight hits and two walks with five strikeouts in five innings.
Tovar led off the eighth inning with his fifth home run of the season.
–Field Level Media
