Iván Herrera had two hits and scored twice, Masyn Winn hit a triple and a double, and Erick Fedde struck out 10 batters as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Colorado Rockies 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Pedro Pagés contributed two RBI singles, and Thomas Saggese added two hits for the Cardinals, who have now won four games in a row and will aim for a series sweep in Thursday’s final game.
Brenton Doyle hit a home run to start the bottom of the ninth against Matthew Liberatore, who was replaced by Ryan Helsley after walking Michael Toglia with one out. Sam Hilliard then hit into a game-ending double play on the first pitch he saw from Helsley, who recorded his 48th save out of 52 chances.
Helsley matched the club record for saves in a season, previously set by Trevor Rosenthal in 2015.
“One pitch. Awesome job. It’s a good way to do it. But he came in and made it look awful easy,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “He’s worked so hard for this. He’s taken the ball a lot and he’s been extremely effective.”
Aaron Schunk had an RBI single for the Rockies (60-98), who need to win three of their last four games to avoid their second consecutive 100-loss season. Colorado set a franchise record last year with 103 losses. The Rockies will finish the season with a weekend series against the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers.
Fedde (9-9) pitched seven innings, allowing one run on six hits, breaking a streak of four straight losses. His 10 strikeouts were just one shy of his career high set against Minnesota on April 23 while he was with the Chicago White Sox. The Cardinals acquired him on July 29 as part of a three-team trade with the Dodgers and White Sox.
“It’s a dream ending in a sense,” Fedde said. “It just reminds me of what I’m capable of. This just will give me a great taste in my mouth heading into the offseason and stuff to grow off of.”
