Hancel Rincon, who was wrapped up in a controversy over his tilted hat a night earlier, pitched a perfect sixth inning, but he was hit hard in an ugly seventh inning as the Rockies pulled away for a 10-7 victory.
Caught in the middle of a national sports controversy Friday night and into Saturday because of a tilted hat, Cardinals’ rookie pitcher Hancel Rincon spoke to umpire Doug Eddings before Game 2 of the series and then put the stir behind him with a stellar sixth inning of work against the Rockies.
Rincon’s second inning, however, had to have left him frustrated about something other than his slightly askew hat bill.
Rincon, who was chided by Eddings a night earlier for wearing his hat slightly tilted to the side, pitched a perfect sixth inning after the Cardinals had rallied to within one of the lead. However, the 24-year-old right-hander struggled mightily in a four-run seventh where he failed to record an out.
Up three runs after 4 ½ innings, the Cardinals saw a potential victory go by the wayside when the Rockies battered them for six runs in the fifth and four more in the seventh in a 10-7 Colorado win at Coors Field on Saturday night.
Matthew Liberatore (5-14) no-hit the Rockies over the first four innings of the game, but he was shelled for four hits and five earned runs in the fifth inning. It proved to be the veteran left-hander’s eighth straight loss over a nine-start stretch. He has not won since shutting out the Braves over six innings on July 11.
"We were thin (with pitching) going into the game, so you try to extend him a little bit longer, but unfortunately he wasn't able to," manager Oliver Marmol said of Liberatore to Cardinals TV. "But it is what it is."
Added Liberatore while addressing his strong start and poor fifth inning: "I felt like I was still committed to the pitches that I made and I got beat on a couple of hits and some of them were soft contact. In my opinion, there was one good swing in there. But that inning just happened pretty quick and unfortunately, I wasn't able to reel it back in."
Trailing 3-0, the Rockies turned the game around with six runs, six hits and three stolen bases in the fifth inning. They also got plenty of help from the Cards with three wild pitches and two errors in the game-changing fifth inning.
Ivan Herrera, the hero on Friday night with a game-winning, three-run homer in the ninth inning, drilled a two-run homer in the fifth inning to put the Cards up 3-0. Herrera, who added an RBI single in the ninth inning, has 12 hits, three homers and nine RBI against the Rockies in five games thus far this season.
Cardinals’ rookie Joshua Baez hit his seventh home run since his MLB record-setting debut on Aug. 15, and this one was quite impressive. The 6-foot-3, Baez when down below the strike zone to get to a 3-1 slider that he hit 422 feet. The liner left his bat at 109.1 mph and got out of the park quickly.
Nolan Gorman doubled in a run and red-hot Thomas Saggese plated another run with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to get the Cards within 6-5.
"We took some really good at bats and puts some balls in play," Marmol said. "Baez had a big homer and Herrera drills that one to center field. UP and down the lineup, we took some good swings. We scored enough but gave up too many to shake hands (after a victory)."
Rincon, who was promoted from Triple-A Memphis on Tuesday, recorded his first MLB strikeout in the sixth inning when he got Zac Veen to chase a changeup below the strike zone. After his perfect sixth inning, Rincon’s Cardinals’ teammates playfully tilted their hats in support of their teammate. Cardinals’ TV cameras showed Eddings speaking to Rincon prior to the rookie heading out to the dugout before Saturday night’s game.'
The game away from the Cardinals in the bottom of the seventh when Rincon allowed the first four Rockies to reach – with all four of them ultimately coming around the score.
