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Beltran and Holliday lift Cardinals over Rockies

Aug 1, 2012 - 5:23 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Carlos Beltran and Matt Holliday each hit a two- run homer while David Freese added a solo shot as the St. Louis Cardinals hammered the Colorado Rockies, 11-6, in the opener of a three-game set at Coors Field.

Holliday also hit a two-run double and finished with four RBI for the Cardinals, who snapped a two-game slide.

"It's always good to drive in some runs and give the team my two cents. It was a good night to hit," said Holliday.

Kyle Lohse (11-2) received the win despite surrendering five runs on nine hits and two walks through six innings. He has now won five straight decisions.

Jeff Francis (3-3) allowed five runs on six hits and no walks over four innings to take the loss for Colorado, which has dropped 12 of its last 15.

Josh Rutledge hit a three-run home run in defeat.

The Cardinals jumped out to an early four-run lead without recording an out in their first at-bat when Daniel Descalso was hit by a pitch and Allen Craig singled before both came home on Holliday's double off the base of the wall in right-center field.

Beltran then hammered a hanging breaking ball deep into the seats in left field.

"That was a tough first inning for me. I made a couple mistakes that some good hitters took advantage of," said Francis.

The Rockies, though, answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the frame after Eric Young Jr. hit a leadoff double, advanced to third on a Rutledge groundout and crossed the plate on Carlos Gonzalez's base hit to left.

Michael Cuddyer followed with an RBI double into the right-field corner, bringing Colorado within 4-2, but the Cardinals got a run back in the second as Skip Schumaker hit a leadoff triple and scored on Craig's two-out single to right.

The Rockies failed to cut into its deficit further by stranding a man on third in the second, second in the fourth and leaving the bases loaded in the fifth.

St. Louis made it a 6-2 game in the sixth when Beltran led off the frame with a ground-rule double to center field and trotted home on Jon Jay's two-out single to left.

Colorado got back within a run in the bottom of the sixth on Rutledge's three- run blast to left-center field following a pair of two-out singles by Adam Ottavino and Young.

The Cardinals quickly regained some cushion in the seventh with a two-run homer over the right-center field wall by Holliday and a solo shot to straightaway center field by Freese two batters later for a 9-5 lead.

Craig worked a one-out walk prior to Holliday's 19th home run of the season.

Craig added a two-run single in the eighth to give the Cardinals an 11-5 cushion before Todd Helton's RBI double in the ninth accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

Gonzalez has now recorded a hit in 29 straight games at Coors Field, trailing Larry Walker's 30-game home hitting streak from May 18-July 21, 2002, as the longest in franchise history...Lohse improved to 5-3 in 11 career starts against Colorado...Francis fell to 6-2 in 12 appearances (11 starts) against St. Louis...The Cardinals hit 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position, while Colorado went 3-for-17 with RISP in the game.