ST. LOUIS -- After the Cardinals bullpen squandered a long-held lead in the top of the eighth inning on Sunday at Busch Stadium, the Cardinals needed someone to deliver the key swing of the game to avoid a frustrating series loss to the Rockies.
José Fermín’s sacrifice bunt put the go-ahead baserunners where they needed to be. JJ Wetherholt delivered a decisive blow.
Reaching base for the fourth time of the day following a pair of walks and a single in the seventh, Wetherholt made sure his second hit of the day was a significant one. His two-run double over the head of center fielder Cole Carrigg put the Cardinals back in the driver’s seat of a 7-4 win over Colorado.
The Cardinals carried a lead through the majority of the afternoon, scoring four runs against Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen while knocking him from the affair in the fifth inning. The Rockies tied the game, 4-4, when Hunter Goodman jumped on George Soriano’s first pitch in the top of the eighth inning, sending a mammoth home run into the second deck in Big Mac Land.
It marked Soriano’s third time allowing a run across his past four appearances, and put the Cardinals in need of more production at the plate. Wetherholt provided it, cementing a series win for St. Louis.
Cardinals starter Michael McGreevy was an out away from completing six innings for the first time in three starts when his 102nd pitch on Sunday afternoon was sent into the home team bullpen to tighten the screws on the proceedings at Busch Stadium.
Rockies catcher Brett Sullivan tagged McGreevy for a two-run blast to cut the Cardinals’ lead down to 4-3, ending the right-hander’s afternoon after 5 2/3 innings.
Entering Sunday, 11 MLB pitchers had logged 15 or more starts of six or more innings. McGreevy fell one out short of joining the list, but found his footing in the win relative to the pair of uncharacteristic outings that preceded Sunday’s effort.