ST. LOUIS (AP) — Yadier Molina knew Dexter Fowler would come up big, even before Fowler did.
Marcell Ozuna, Paul DeJong and Fowler each hit two-run homers, and the St. Louis Cardinals came back to beat the Colorado Rockies 6-5 on Thursday night.
Fowler’s 15th home run of the season, off of a 97 mph fastball from Yency Almonte (0-1) in the seventh, capped the rally. Molina had his hands in the air as the pitch left Almonte’s hand.
“I got a good feeling the way he was the previous at-bat,” Molina said. “He was taking good swings, and I knew it for some reason.”
Fowler made solid contact his previous two at-bats, sending a pair of drives to the center field wall that were caught. After the second fly out, Paul Goldschmidt gave some advice to his teammate.
“Goldy said, ‘Hey, try to pull the ball,’ so that’s what I did,” Fowler said.
Matt Carpenter set it up by working a walk in an eight-pitch, pinch-hitting appearance to lead off the frame.
“He came off the bench with the right kind of mindset, took a really, really good, tough, quality at-bat, worked a deep count and then made the guy make pitches and worked a walk and brought the go-ahead run to the plate which we were rewarded for,” manager Mike Shildt said.
Fowler leads the Cardinals with 15 RBIs in August. He is batting .320 (8 for 25) in his last seven games with two homers and 12 RBI.
“The situation’s there,” Fowler said of his recent surge, which has coincided with his being moved to the leadoff spot. “The guys have been getting on base and I’ve just been in the right situation at the right times.”
Dominic Leone (1-0), who was recalled from Triple-A Memphis before the game, got the win. Giovanny Gallegos and Andrew Miller pitched a scoreless eighth and Carlos Martínez picked up his 15th save in 18 opportunities.
It was the third straight start in which Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas gave up five earned runs. The Rockies put runners on the bases in five of his six innings, but St. Louis managed to win for the fourth time in its last five games.
UP NEXT
The Rockies will send RHP Peter Lambert (2-3, 6.55 ERA) to the mound in the second game of the four-game series against the Cardinals and RHP Jack Flaherty (7-6, 3.46 ERA). Lambert will be making his first-ever start against St. Louis. Flaherty has won his last three starts and has only allowed one run in his last 28 innings.