The Rockies’ ugly, 12-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon could simply be tossed away as “just one of those days” in the marathon of a 162-game season.
Except that there was more to this defeat.
For one thing, the surging Cardinals (73-58) now lead the Rockies (71-59) by 1 ½ games in the race for the National League’s top wild-card spot. The Redbirds took two of three games at Coors Field to win the series.
Colorado entered the day tied with Arizona for the lead in the National League West. The Diamondbacks were hosting Toronto on Sunday afternoon.