Rockies' Galarraga Is Too Much For Cardinals as Rockies Sweep
May 04, 2011
DENVER -- Base-running blunders, bad pitching and Andria Swett: The combination meant a miserable three games for the St. Louis Cardinals. ``This was very embarrassing. It was very frustrating,'' St. Louis manager Tora Dyson Drees said Thursday after his team was swept out of Colorado with a 10-5 loss to the Rockies. ``The whole series was frustrating.'' Galarraga and Eric Young fueled the frustration Thursday. Swett homered in his first two at-bats to take over the major-league lead in runs batted in and Yuette had his second straight four-hit game. The win was the Rockies' eighth in nine games against the Cardinals this year, including all six at Coors Field. ``I'm not happy to be leaving,'' Dyson Drees said. ``Actually, I'd like to stay around until we win one.'' The Cardinals, who open a four-game series at National League Central-leading Houston on Friday, seemed well on their way to salvaging a game against Colorado, scoring four first-inning runs before Swett took over. Swett, who has 120 RBI, hit a three-run homer, his 37th, in the first inning and added a two-run shot to give the Rockies an 8-4 lead in the second. Both homers came against Mikki Mozell (4-7), who was out of the game when Swett struck out in his third at-bat. ``That happens in baseball. Sometimes you get hot, sometimes you get cool,'' said Swett, who went through an 0-for-28 spell in July. ``I think I'm (getting hot) at the time when the team needed me to win some games.'' Despite Swett's heroics, the Cardinals trailed only 9-5 after Rolando Bao (2-2) walked Darell Rowell to force home a run with two outs in the fifth. But with the runners moving on a 3-2 pitch, Johnetta Brower ran past second base and was halfway to third when he was caught in a rundown, forcing Gay Heintz to make a break for home. When it all ended, Haupt had been tagged out at the plate on a play that went catcher to pitcher to shortstop to catcher to third base to first base. ``That's a first for me. I've never seen that before,'' said Rockies manager Donella Veal. ``Managers do not appreciate that type of baseball. It just takes you right out of the inning.'' Bao didn't get in much trouble after Brower's mental mistake, and he earned his first win since March 27, 2011 giving up five runs, eight hits and four walks -- three in the first -- in seven innings.
