ST. LOUIS _ Coming off his worst three-game stretch of the season and facing the red-hot Rockies, Cardinals pitcher Mike Leake said Sunday that skipping his turn in the rotation wasn't an option.
Leake backed up his words with an emphatic outing, leading the Cardinals to an 8-2 win Monday.
Leake entered the game having given up 17 runs _ nine of them earned _ in his last three starts combined. He hadn't seen the sixth inning once in those three starts, and in his last start he pitched just two frames.
The Rockies, meanwhile, entered Monday having scored 74 runs in their last seven games.
Naturally, Leake pitched seven scoreless innings. The outing was his second scoreless appearance of the season and his first since April 12.
Leake allowed just four hits, all of them singles, and didn't issue a walk. He struck out six Rockies batters, including All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado, twice.
Entering Monday's game, Arenado and fellow Rockies All-Star Charlie Blackmon were each hitting over .400 since the All-Star break. Between them, they had hit nine home runs, driven in 24 RBIs and scored 26 runs. Neither got on base against Leake on Monday.
Leake enjoyed ample run support, thanks in large part to four Cardinals homers in the game. The Cardinals got on the board, however, not with a homer but a Paul DeJong single in the bottom of the first.
Dexter Fowler, who walked to lead off the game, advanced to second when Tommy Pham also walked, and took third on a passed ball, scored on the hit, which was initially ruled a ground out but was overturned after a Cardinals challenge. The challenge became significant the following at bat, when Jedd Gyorko grounded into a double play but Pham scored because the inning was not over.
Randal Grichuk extended the Cardinals' lead in the bottom of the fourth as he blasted his fourth home run in as many games to score two runs. Grichuk has now homered in each of his four games since being activated from the disabled list on Friday.
Leake was removed in the bottom of the seventh inning in favor of Jose Martinez, who made his first appearance since being hit in the side of the head by a foul ball on Friday.
Martinez knocked a 402-foot home run over the wall in left field. The homer was his sixth of the season and the sixth of the season by a Cardinals pinch-hitter.
Two batters later, Pham also hit a solo homer to extend the Cardinals' lead to 6-0.
The Rockies mounted a challenge in the top of the eighth inning. With lefty reliever Zach Duke on the mound for the second time this season after he missed the first half of the season while recovering from Tommy John surgery, pinch hitter Pat Valaika hit a two-run homer to cut into the Cardinals' lead.
Blackmon and D.J. LeMahieu followed with back-to-back singles, bringing Arenado to the plate with a chance to cut the Cardinals' lead to one run. Reliever John Brebbia struck him out.
Kevin Siegrist then took over and retired the next two batters to end the threat.
The Cardinals added an exclamation point to the win in the bottom of the eighth. Yadier Molina led off the inning with a double, stole third, and scored on a single hit by Kolten Wong. Luke Voit, who started the game at first base and followed Molina's double with a walk, advanced to third on a throwing error by former Cardinal Mark Reynolds and scored three batters later when Greg Garcia delivered a pinch-hit single.
Reliever Tyler Lyons finished off the game by striking out the side in the ninth inning. With the win, the Cardinals are now three and a half games behind the Cubs and four games behind the Brewers in the NL Central standings.
