Rockies top Cardinals 8-4 behind German Marquez, Gerardo Parra

In front of another sold out crowd, the Colorado Rockies defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 8-4 on Sunday afternoon and won their fourth consecutive series in the process. German Marquez pitched 5 ²⁄₃ solid innings and Gerardo Parra went 3-for-3 with a three-run homer in the victory.

A day after being completely baffled by Adam Wainwright, the Rockies weren’t fooled by Lance Lynn. After all three batters in the first inning made hard contact but failed to reach base, Gerardo Parra and Ian Desmond hit back-to-back singles in the second, and Parra scored on a ground ball by Alexi Amarista that was too hot for Cardinals third baseman Jedd Gyorko to handle cleanly.

The game briefly stopped in the third inning as the St. Louis training staff looked at a blister on Lynn’s finger, but he remained in the game. The Rockies got to him again in the fourth, when an Arenado walk and a Reynolds single set the table for a three-run Parra home run that seemed to bring him great satisfaction. It was Parra’s 13th hit in 26 at-bats lifetime against Lance Lynn, and it gave the home team a 4-0 lead after four innings.

Things got interesting in the top of the fifth when Mark Reynolds lost a pop-up in the sun and Dexter Fowler reached on a ball off the glove of Marquez, who proceeded to walk Tommy Pham on four pitches to load the bases. With Matt Carpenter at the plate representing the tying run, Marquez induced an easy ground ball to second to get out of the jam, but the Cardinals weren’t done.

Jedd Gyorko led off the sixth inning for the Cardinals with a solo home run to center, and Greg Garcia followed with his first of the season two batters later to cut the Rockies’ lead to 4-2. Marquez departed with two outs in the inning after giving up a hard double Eric Fryer. All told he went 5 ²⁄₃ innings, giving up two runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and a walk.

Chris Rusin got the last out of the sixth, and continued into the seventh, where he gave up a solo homer to Tommy Pham that pulled the Cardinals within one run. Adam Ottavino came on in place of Rusin and walked a batter before striking out Aledmys Diaz to preserve the lead. He then worked a flawless eighth inning to set up Greg Holland for his first appearance in a week. With a one-run lead headed into the bottom of the eighth inning, everyone assumed Holland would be pitching in a save situation, but the Rockies had other plans.

DJ LeMahieu singled leading off the bottom of the eighth, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and made it to third just ahead of the throw on a Nolan Arenado ground ball. The result was first and third with nobody out, and Mark Reynolds took advantage with a bloop single to right that scored a run. Carlos Gonzalez came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out later in the inning, and he hit a fly ball to left that was just deep enough to score Mark Reynolds from third. The throw was in time, but slightly up the line and Reynolds, under the direction of on-deck hitter Tony Wolters, slid expertly to his left to avoid the tag.

Moments after assisting a run in scoring, Wolters contributed directly with a single to left that scored two and made the score 8-3 and sent some of the fans in red to the exits.

Greg Holland did not pitch a perfect ninth in his first action since the Cincinnati series. He gave up a leadoff home run to Cards rookie Paul DeJong, who was making his very first plate appearance in the major leagues, before retiring the next three batters easily, including a strike out of Matt Carpenter for the final out of the game.

With the victory, the Rockies improved to 33-19, and they will take on the Seattle Mariners at 1:10 on Memorial Day afternoon. Tyler Chatwood will face off against Seattle rookie Sam Gaviglio.