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Holliday homers as Wainwright gets win No. 18

Sep 13, 2014 - 5:29 AM St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer to back eight strong innings from Adam Wainwright, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-1, in the opener of a three-game series.

Wainwright (18-9) gave up one run on six hits while striking out eight for the Cardinals, who remained 2 1/2 games ahead of Pittsburgh for first place in the NL Central. Wainwright was coming off his fourth complete game of the season in Sunday's 9-1 pounding of the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park.

The right-hander has won three straight starts and is tied with Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Clayton Kershaw for the most wins in baseball.

Nolan Arenado drove in the lone run for the Rockies, who have lost four in a row. Jorge De La Rosa (13-11) allowed four runs -- three earned -- on four hits with six strikeouts and three walks over six innings.

The Cardinals jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first. Matt Carpenter walked and Randal Grichuk reached on an infield single prior to Holliday's blast to left.

"Jorge made one mistake. Mistakes tend to go far with that guy," said Rockies manager Walt Weiss.

The Rockies, who failed to score in each of their previous two games, got on the board in the third. Charlie Blackmon led off with a single, stole second and raced home on Arenado's double to left.

St. Louis got the run back in the bottom half. Holliday reached on Justin Morneau's missed catch error, stole second and crossed the plate on Jhonny Peralta's single to right.

"Whether we hit a lull or Cincinnati pitched well, we didn't have the same intensity there that we had in Milwaukee," said Holliday, referring to the Cardinals winning three of four games last weekend over the Brewers.

That was all the support Wainwright needed, as he retired 16 consecutive batters.

Yadier Molina's RBI double in the eighth accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

The Cardinals, who snapped a three-game skid, started a nine-game homestand on Friday ... Colorado went 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven ... Wainwright improved to 7-1 lifetime against the Rockies ... Morneau left the game before the bottom of the sixth with left intercostal soreness.