DENVER — The Colorado Rockies put a damper on Matt Holliday's homecoming along with the hopes of all the teams chasing them for the National League wild card.
Yorvit Torrealba's sacrifice fly scored Troy Tulowitzki with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth and the Rockies edged the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 on Friday night, ending a two-game skid.
That prevented the Cardinals from becoming the first team in the majors to clinch their division and kept the 1 Rockies 3 /2 games ahead of the Atlanta Braves in the NL wild card.
The Cardinals still had a chance to celebrate in the clubhouse later Friday night, but the Chicago Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 3-0, keeping St. Louis' magic number at one.
The Giants and Florida Marlins fell five games behind Colorado in the wild card. Florida lost to the New York Mets.
After holding Holliday to a 1-for-4 performance in which he stranded five runners, the Rockies sent the heart of their lineup to the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
Todd Helton led off with a walk from Trevor Miller (4-1), who was replaced by Kyle McClellan. Tulowitzki reached on a fielder's choice, and Jason Giambi's pinchhit single put runners at first and third.
Torrealba lofted a ball to right, and Ryan Ludwick's throw home wasn't close.
Huston Street (4-1), one of the players Holliday was traded for last winter, picked up the victory with a scoreless ninth.
Holliday, making his first visit to Coors Field as a member of the opposition, slipped out of the clubhouse after the game without comment.
The Rockies, who lead the majors with 59 sacrifice flies, scored both runs that way.
Carlos Gonzalez, another player who came over from the Oakland Athletics in trade for Holliday, led off the bottom of the first with adouble, was bunted over and scored on Helton's deep fly to center off Chris Carpenter.
Carpenter gave up 1 run and 5 hits in 7 innings, but the only support he received was Ludwick's 21st home run in the seventh off Jose Contreras that tied the game at 1-1.
Carpenter, a leading candidate for the NL Cy Young award with a 16-4 record, complained that the mound was steeper than the one in the bullpen.
The Cardinals had a scare in the eighth when Albert Pujols limped around the first-base bag after hitting a single. He said it was only a cramp: "I feel fine."
The best news for the Rockies was that Aaron Cook threw five scoreless innings in his first start since Aug. 21, when shoulder soreness forced him out of a game against San Francisco. He allowed four hits, all singles, got 12 groundball outs and didn't walk a batter in a 76-pitch performance.
CUBS 3, GIANTS 0
Carlos Zambrano (9-6) threw a two-hitter, his first complete game since his no-hitter last season, and drove in two runs as Chicago beat host San Francisco. Ryan Theriot had two hits and drove in a run as the Cubs won for the fifth time in six games. Sam Fuld added two hits. Zambrano struck out nine and walked one in winning his second consecutive decision and extending his unbeaten streak to five games. It was his fourth career shutout and ninth complete game. The Giants managed to get one runner as far as third against Zambrano, who retired nine of the first 10 hitters he faced and 17 of the final 18. The Giants' Tim Lincecum (14-7) lasted 7 innings, giving up 2 runs and 7 hits. He walked three and struck out seven. Lincecum had one of the Giants' hits.
Sports, Pages 19, 28 on 09/26/2009