McCarthy Goes Yard Twice as Colorado Outlasts St. Louis 8-6
Jake McCarthy went 4-for-5 with two home runs, 3 RBI, and 4 runs scored to carry Colorado past St. Louis 8-6 on Saturday night. The story of the night was a one-man wrecking crew who hit a 420-foot shot in the first inning and came back with a 417-footer in the sixth to put the game away.
Colorado struck first when McCarthy launched one 420 feet to right center in the opening inning, but St. Louis answered immediately. Jose Fermín doubled to left, scoring two, and just like that the Cardinals led 2-1. The Rockies didn't flinch. In the third, Cole Carrigg doubled to center, scoring Karros and McCarthy to flip the lead back to Colorado at 3-2 — a swing that moved the home win probability from 66% to 47%, the single biggest momentum shift of the game. Goodman followed with a single to right to score Carrigg, and Colorado was suddenly up 4-2 and in control.
The fifth inning added to the cushion. TJ Rumfield singled to left to score Carrigg, pushing it to 5-2, though St. Louis got one back on a sacrifice fly by Winn that scored Herrera. Then McCarthy took over again in the sixth, going deep 417 feet to center with Tovar aboard to make it 7-3. Matthew Liberatore had already been roughed up for 9 hits and 5 earned runs across 5 innings, and the Cardinals' bullpen wasn't much of a refuge — Luis Gastelum allowed 2 earned runs in 2 innings, and Peter Strzelecki gave up 1 more. On the Colorado side, Kyle Freeland was workmanlike rather than dominant: 4.1 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run, 3 walks, 3 strikeouts — enough to keep his team in it while the offense did the heavy lifting.
St. Louis made it interesting late. Jordan Walker hit a 432-foot shot to left center in the eighth to cut it to 7-5, and in the ninth, after Karros's sacrifice fly extended the Colorado lead to 8-5, Church singled to right to score Fermín and make it 8-6. Ivan Herrera finished 3-for-5 with 2 runs for the Cardinals, and Fermín was efficient going 2-for-2 with 2 RBI, but it wasn't enough. Colorado's offense — 11 hits, multiple extra-base shots, and a relentless ability to score in bunches — looks like a group that simply had too many answers tonight. McCarthy's two-homer, four-run performance was the difference, full stop.