Bettis pitches Rockies past Cardinals
ST. LOUIS -- The Colorado Rockies continued their solid work on the road, and the St. Louis Cardinals continued to lose at home.
Chad Bettis worked 6 2/3 solid innings Tuesday night as Colorado extended its winning streak to five games with a 3-1 victory at Busch Stadium.
Bettis (4-2) didn't allow a hit beyond the infield until St. Louis pieced together three two-out singles in the seventh, knocking him out after an RBI hit by pinch hitter Randal Grichuk.
The Rockies' bullpen protected Bettis' lead and win, although closer Jake McGee tightroped to his 13th save. McGee yielded a single and walk before fanning pinch hitter Jedd Gyorko to end it as the Rockies improved their mark away from Coors Field to 12-8.
Bettis gave up one run on five hits, issued two walks and fanned three for Colorado (20-18).
Jaime Garcia (3-3) absorbed the loss, yielding five hits and three runs in five innings, tying his shortest start of the year. Garcia walked four and fanned three.
The Cardinals (20-19) dropped to 9-11 at home and 5-12 in games against teams with winning records.
Colorado's Dustin Garneau and St. Louis' Kolten Wong had two hits apiece.
The Rockies dented the scoreboard first with a two-out RBI single by Nolan Arenado in the third, landing just in front of a sliding Matt Holliday in left field. The hit scored Charlie Blackmon, who stroked a one-out single and stole second.
Colorado got production from the bottom of the order in a two-run fourth. No. 8 hitter Dustin Garneau lined a single to center that scored Mark Reynolds, and Bettis reached on a fielder's choice bouncer to short that plated DJ LeMahieu.
Bettis also did his job on the mound, holding St. Louis hitless until a leadoff infield single in the fifth by Jeremy Hazelbaker. Bettis used a sinking fastball to cruise through the first five innings, obtaining eight outs off grounders.
NOTES: St. Louis reinstated OF Tommy Pham (left oblique strain) from the 15-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Memphis. Injured on Opening Day on April 3 in Pittsburgh, Pham batted .281 in 32 at-bats on a rehab assignment, split between Memphis and Double-A Springfield. ... Colorado 3B Nolan Arenado leads the majors in RBIs (162) and extra-base hits (110) since the start of the 2015 season. ... Cardinals LF Matt Holliday is the only active player with 500 or more hits in multiple stadiums as he has 512 in Busch Stadium and 511 in Coors Field, his home for the first five years of his MLB career.