Ivan Herrera hit a solo home run, and right-hander Kyle Leahy pitched five effective innings Friday night for the St. Louis Cardinals in a 3-2 victory against the visiting Colorado Rockies.
St. Louis recorded just four hits, yet won for the fourth time in five games to get back to .500. They’re hanging around in the National League Wild Card race, but on the outside of the postseason field among a group of six teams.
Leahy (8-4) allowed two runs and eight hits to go along with eight strikeouts and no walks on the day. This is his eighth straight start in which he allowed the opponent to score two or fewer.
Herrera’s solo home run in the third, against right-hander Ryan Feltner (4-6), gave the Cards a 3-1 lead. It was just his third homer in his last 39 games.
Feltner gave up four hits and all three runs in 5 1/3 innings while adding two strikeouts and three walks.
St. Louis took a 2-1 lead in the second on back-to-back sacrifice flies by Nathan Church and Bryan Torres. Masyn Winn had tagged up from second on Church’s fly ball to reach third and scored one pitch later on Torres’ sac fly.
The Cardinals bullpen tossed four scoreless innings of two-hit ball, with right-handerRiley O’Brien getting the final three outs for his 28th save.
Troy Johnston drove in both runs for Colorado, both coming on groundouts to second base, coming in the second and fourth innings.
Cardinals slugger Jordan Walker returned to the lineup and played right field after missing two games because of a sore knee. He went 1-for-4 with an infield single in the fifth.
The Rockies had 10 hits, but went a combined 2-for-20 with runners on base. They fell to 45-71, worst in Major League Baseball.
