Cardinals Lefty Surrenders Homer on First Pitch, Gets Shelled Again in Loss to Rockies

· Yahoo Sports

Roundtable Sports' John Denton dissects another poor outing from Matthew Liberatore, who allowed a 430-foot homer on his first pitch of the game and five earned runs over five innings of work.

Still riding high after an Aug. 2 outing where he mowed down the Blue Jays over six scoreless innings, Matthew Liberatore saw all that momentum go out the proverbial window when his first pitch of Saturday was hit 420 feet for a no-doubter of a home run.

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Sadly for Liberatore and the Cardinals, the night didn’t get much better after that crushing first pitch of the game.

Unable to build off the momentum from six days earlier, Liberatore got rocked on the first pitch of the game and ultimately surrendered nine hits and five earned runs in an 8-6 loss to the Rockies that ended the Cardinals’ modest two-game winning streak.

Jake McCarthy hit Liberatore’s first pitch for a homer and added another two-run shot – this one traveling 417 feet and 105.3 mph off the bat – in the sixth inning off rookie reliever Luis Gastelum. McCarthy, who had three hits in Friday’s Rockies loss, had four more hits and three RBI on Saturday night. Three of his seven hits in the series have gone for extra bases.

McCarthy, who was acquired by the Rockies in a trade with the Dbacks last January, because just the third player in MLB history with four hits, four runs, two homers, three RBI and two stolen bases.

The Cardinals responded to Liberatore’s poor start by scoring two in the bottom of the first inning on a Jose Fermin double that plated Ivan Herrera and Alec Burleson.

However, that 2-1 St. Louis lead lasted just an inning as first five straight hitters in the third inning reached against Liberatore, who broke late in covering first to allow McCarthy’s infield single that started a rally. Cole Carrigg drilled a center-cut changeup for a double that plated two. A batter later, Hunter Goodman skied a popup to shallow right field that dropped for a hit to score Carrigg.

Then, in the fifth inning, TJ Rumfield went the other way with a chopper that got through the infield and scored Carrigg, who doubled a second time in the game two batters earlier.

Herrera, Walker come up big in loss

Herrera had two doubles and three hits total, while Fermin drove in two with his double, singled in the ninth, stole a base and walked a career-most three times.

Jordan Walker, who failed to get the ball out of the infield in his first four at bats of the game, homered in the eighth inning to get the Cardinals back within striking distance. His 432-foot shot ended a 22-game homerless streak that dated to July 9 for the 6-foot-6 slugger who won the Home Run Derby during the All-Star festivities.

Everson Pereira, who made his Cardinals debut after they claimed him off waivers from the Chicago White Sox, walked and scored in the sixth inning. He also made a spectacular running catch of a line drive in the gap in the top of the ninth inning. 

The Cardinals had eight hits, but they were just 3 for 16 with runners in scoring position. They left 12 runners on base.

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