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Holliday, Cards rip Rockies

Sep 18, 2013 - 6:24 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Matt Holliday went 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBI and Matt Carpenter added three hits, two RBI and three runs scored as the St. Louis Cardinals cruised to an 11-4 win over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.

Yadier Molina and Daniel Descalso finished with two hits and two RBI apiece for the Cardinals, who moved one game ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates atop the NL Central standings.

"You like gaining a game on them, but there's still a lot of games left and we've got to keep winning games to make it hard on them," Holliday said.

Joe Kelly (9-4) allowed three hits and two walks over five scoreless innings to earn the win.

DJ LeMahieu, Michael Cuddyer and Charlie Culberson each finished with one RBI for the Rockies, losers in three of their last four games.

Juan Nicasio (8-8) was tagged for eight runs on eight hits and three walks in just 2 2/3 innings to absorb the loss.

St. Louis pushed one run across in both the first and second innings before busting the game open with a six-run third.

In the first, Molina singled to center to score Jon Jay and Carpenter singled home Descalso in the second to give the Cards an early edge.

Holliday opened the third with a double then scored on Molina's double to left. Matt Adams followed with a base hit to push Molina across.

After David Freese walked, Descalso ripped a triple to right to clear the bases. Carpenter followed two batter later with an RBI single to center and Holliday capped the inning with a base hit to right to make it 8-0.

Holliday hammered a two-run homer in the fifth to push St. Louis' spread to 10-0.

The Rockies pushed four runs across in the seventh. With two on and one out, Culberson laced a two-run, pinch-hit single to center. After Corey Dickerson struck out, LeMahieu singled home Culberson before coming around on Cuddyer's RBI single to center.

Carpenter scored on a Manny Corpas wild pitch in the ninth.

Game Notes

The Cardinals had at least one hit in every inning and finished the game with 18 ... Holliday has reached 20 homers in each of the last five seasons, and eight times in his career ... St. Louis was 7-for-19 with runners in scoring position ... Colorado went 3-for-10 with RISP and left nine runners on base.