St. Louis, MO (Sports Network) – Chris Carpenter closed out his season with his first complete game of the campaign as the St. Louis Cardinals took a 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies in the opener of a four-game series from Busch Stadium.
Carpenter (16-9) gave up just one run on a wild pitch along with four hits and two walks while striking out four for the Cardinals, who have won four of their last five. Matt Pagnozzi drove in two runs.
Dexter Fowler tripled and scored the lone run for the Rockies, who have dropped five straight. Jason Hammel (10-9) was tagged with the loss as he was charged with five runs on eight hits in just three innings.
The Cardinals got an RBI double from Albert Pujols in the first inning for a 1-0 lead, and the team plated two more in the second on an RBI single from Brendan Ryan and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Skip Schumaker.
In the third, Colby Rasmus singled home a run while Pagnozzi’s run-scoring groundout made it a 5-0 game.
The Rockies got on the board in the sixth when Fowler tripled and later came home on a wild pitch.
St. Louis, though, got it back in the seventh thanks to Pagnozzi’s RBI single.
Carpenter set Colorado down in order in the final three innings to complete the game.
Colorado swept a three-game set against St. Louis at home in July and came into the game having taken 11 of the last 12…Carpenter snapped a four-start losing streak and is 4-1 in seven starts against the Rockies. He has 29 complete games in his career.