DENVER -- In a classic Coors Field twist, the Cardinals battled back after blowing a three-run lead in the sixth and stole a victory from the Rockies with a three-run homer from Iván Herrera in the top of the ninth, earning a 7-6 win in the opener of the three-game set.
Starter Andre Pallante matched his season high for walks with four in the first three innings alone, beginning with a leadoff walk to Jake McCarthy, who stole second, advanced to third on a grounder to first and scored on a Hunter Goodman sac fly to left.
The Cardinals came back with a big second inning to take a one-run lead and added on two more in the fifth, opening the frame with a single, a walk, two infield singles and a sac fly from Walker for his 100th RBI of the season. Herrera was thrown out trying to advance to third on the sac fly, costing the Cards a run when Bernal doubled to center.
“It was good to see Pallante back out there,” manager Oliver Marmol said of the starter who last pitched on Aug. 17 before landing on the injured list with right elbow inflammation. “He did a nice job getting through five. Kept those guys on the ground, wasn't synced up to the degree that he normally is, but that's part of it when you're coming back from not pitching for a little bit.”
Hancel Rincon came in to make his Major League debut in relief of Pallante. As he described it, his lasting memory from the game was running in from the bullpen to the pitcher’s mound for the first time in a big league game.
Things got a little strange after he took the mound when home-plate umpire Doug Eddings told him to straighten out his cap rather than wear it tilted like Rincon prefers. Rincon shrugged it off and straightened his hat before his first pitch, but Marmol was later ejected after a heated exchange with Eddings about the incident.
After Goodman lined to second for Rincon’s first out, the rookie struggled, allowing a triple to right field off the bat of Rockies rookie TJ Rumfield, a Statcast-projected 428-foot inside-the-park home run from Cole Carrigg and a single to Connor Norby. The inning ended with Justin Bruihl on the mound and the Cards down 5-4.
“I was attacking the zone like I’ve always been doing [throughout] my career,” Rincon said through an interpreter. “The things that happened just happen because it's baseball. I felt good. I didn't feel nervous.”
The Cards battled back in the ninth, with Thomas Saggese getting on with a leadoff walk and José Fermín reaching on a throwing error from third baseman Norby, putting runners on second and third with one out.
Herrera took a 1-2 slider and drove it a Statcast-projected 430 feet into center for a three-run homer and a one-run lead heading to the bottom of the ninth, when Riley O’Brien closed the door and secured his 36th save.
“My pitch execution was good today,” O’Brien said. “That's the only thing I was concerned about, being three [games] in a row, how my body's going to respond, but I felt like I was synced up and was in a good rhythm. I felt pretty good.”
Marmol had planned for O’Brien to be down for Friday’s game, having pitched late the night before in L.A., when he blew a save in the ninth inning, but O’Brien got word to Marmol in the sixth inning Friday that if the Cardinals had a lead, he wanted the ball.
“I just wanted to get back out there, and I felt good enough,” O’Brien said. “I didn't want to sit on that [L.A.] game for too long, and then especially in a save situation when I was coming in to help the guys get a win.”
O’Brien’s attitude was emblematic of the way teammates picked each other up -- including taking the burden off Rincon in his first game.
“That's what you want to see,” Marmol said of O’Brien. “There's so much that goes along with being a closer, and you're going to blow certain games, and you wear it hard, and they're frustrating, especially when you're chasing a Wild Card spot and everything that comes with it. So, for him to not want to sleep on that and take the ball three days in a row -- I love that. You think about Riley a year ago and his mentality now -- that’s growth, that's development, that's a lot of progress.”