Kyle Freeland gave it his best effort, but the Cardinals were too much for the Rockies as St. Louis won 6-3 on Wednesday night.
Colorado got it going in the third inning when Ian Desmond drew a walk and Nolan Arenado singled to move him over. Then, with two outs, Trevor Story singled to score Desmond and then Gerardo Parra double to score Arenado and put the Rockies ahead 2-0.
In the bottom half of the third, a walk ended up burning the Rockies too; Matt Carpenter walked and came around to score after back-to-back singles by Yadier Molina and Paul Dejong to bring the game to 2-1, Rockies.
St. Louis tied the game up 2-2 in the fourth when Yairo Munoz singled, was moved from first to third on another single and then actually scored on a groundout by pitcher Daniel Poncedeleon.
Freeland pitched a solid game, giving up nine hits and three runs in 5.1 innings. He struck out five while walking three. When he left in the sixth inning, he threw 112 pitches and left two runners on.
But after he was pulled, Freeland’s base runner — Harrison Bader — scored to push the Cardinals back ahead, 3-2.
The Rockies threatened in the eighth, with two on, but that was foiled when Chris Iannetta hit a soft liner on a check swing which resulted in the third out of the inning.
Meanwhile, the Cards were able to put three more runs on the board, extending their lead to 6-2 and basically put away Colorado.
In the ninth, the Rockies put one more on the board when Nolan Arenado doubled to score Charlie Blackmon.
Colorado fell to 58-49 on the season, one game back of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. Thursday is the fourth and final game of the series for the Rockies in St. Louis as the men in purple and black look to even it up at 2-2.
