Nolan Gorman homered to cap a six-run fifth inning, Cooper Hjerpe struck out six in four spotless innings in his major league debut and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 10-8 on Sunday in Denver.
Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson each had three hits and Thomas Saggese and Joshua Baez finished with two hits apiece for St. Louis (72-72), which remained four games behind Arizona for the third National League wild-card berth.
George Soriano got the final out for his third save.
Hjerpe (1-0), the Cardinals’ first-round draft pick in 2022, entered in the fourth and didn’t allow a baserunner.
Jake McCarthy homered and singled twice, Mickey Moniak also went deep and finished with two hits and four RBIs and TJ Rumfield had three hits for Colorado (55-88).
The Rockies jumped ahead in the first inning on a two-out RBI double by Rumfield and a single by Moniak to make it 2-0. The Cardinals got a run in the second when Saggese doubled and scored on Nathan Church’s single.
The Rockies padded their lead in the third when Cole Carrigg and Rumfield singled and Moniak homered to center to make it 5-1. It was his 22nd of the season.
That ended the day for starter Kyle Leahy, who allowed five runs on six hits and struck out six in 2 2/3 innings. He was saved from a loss when his team rallied in the fifth against Tanner Gordon, who allowed five runs on eight hits over 4 2/3 innings.
Herrera started things with a two-out single, Burleson doubled and Jordan Walker loaded the bases with a walk. Leo Bernal laced a single to right to bring home two runs.
Baez greeted reliever Jimmy Herget (0-6) with a two-run single to tie the score, and Gorman homered to right to put St. Louis in front. It was his ninth of the season.
The Cardinals made it 10-5 in the eighth on a two-run double by Herrera followed by Burleson’s single.
McCarthy led off the bottom of the inning with his 15th home run and added a two-run single in the ninth.
