As he prepared to suit up against the Rockies for the first time in his career, Nolan Arenado admitted that Friday night wouldn’t have the same emotion that he expects to feel when he makes his first trip to Coors Field later this season. For Austin Gomber, the centerpiece of the deal that sent Arenado to the Cardinals in February, Friday night was that homecoming, as he started against his former club for the first time at Busch Stadium.

Things didn’t work out well for the left-hander, as Gomber was roughed up for five runs over five innings in a 5-0 loss to the Cardinals, snapping the Rockies’ modest winning streak at two games.

The Rockies managed just four hits in the game, three of them coming in the first inning. Jack Flaherty dominated the Colorado lineup over seven scoreless innings, walking one and striking out six to become the Majors’ first six-game winner. To add insult to injury, Flaherty hit his first career home run, one of two allowed by Gomber, who struck out seven without issuing a walk.

“I've gotten every opportunity that I could ask for so far, but at some point, I’ve got to start turning the opportunities into success,” Gomber said. “I'm happy to be here; I feel like I'm in a good place. It's just one bad inning every time out or one bad pitch, really, where I'm just not getting the job completely done.”

Gomber fell to 2-4 while his ERA spiked to 6.35 in seven starts, five of which have ended in Rockies losses.

While much of the pregame hype focused on Arenado’s first career meeting with his former club, Rockies manager Bud Black had a quick chat with Gomber, who was making his return to St. Louis to face the club that selected him in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft.

“We talked about that and he smiled,” Black said before the game. “He goes, ‘I get it, Buddy. This is going to be a little different for me, but I'm fine.’ He was relaxed. I said, ‘Just be yourself; you don't have to try to prove anything to anybody. Just go have fun and compete, do your thing. Be you.’ He nodded and said, ‘I got you.’”

Gomber retired the Cardinals in order in the first inning, striking out Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson to open his night. If Gomber’s emotions were running high, he was doing a brilliant job of disguising them.

“Just watching him when he returned from the bullpen in the first inning, when he came into the dugout and everybody patted him on the back and [gave] high fives, 'Go get 'em,' and all that, he was fine,” Black said. “I think the heartbeat was fine, his poise was fine.”

Arenado doubled to lead off the second, setting up Harrison Bader’s two-run homer later in the inning. Flaherty stretched the lead to 3-0 in the third with his unlikely home run, then the Cardinals tacked on two more runs in the fifth without much hard contact, growing the lead to five.

“You know, what happens sometimes in baseball when the ball goes in the right spot, you turn around, it's five innings, five runs,” Black said. “It looks a little worse in the box score.”

“It's definitely frustrating, man,” Gomber said. “I feel like every time out there I'm having some good innings, but I just had that one inning or two innings that I'm not able to get out right now. We’ll have to figure it out.”

The Rockies’ lone scoring opportunity came in the first inning, when Ryan McMahon, Charlie Blackmon and Garrett Hampson hit three consecutive two-out singles. But a baserunning snafu by Blackmon snuffed out the threat, after which Flaherty retired 18 of the next 19 batters he faced, the lone baserunner coming on Trevor Story’s third-inning walk.

“It's great that we bunched them together. It would have been nice to have [Matt] Adams there with the bases loaded,” Black said. “One hit there changes the whole momentum of the game, but Chuck got caught off there.”

Gomber was able to catch up with a handful of Cardinals coaches and trainers during batting practice on Friday, and while he hopes to have a chance to see some of his former teammates this weekend, he would have enjoyed it more had he pitched a little better against them.

“I was excited coming in,” Gomber said. “This place is special to me, obviously. I made my debut on that mound. I was excited to come back. I’ve just got to be better. That's really what it comes down to; I’ve just got to be better.”