ST. LOUIS — Chad Bettis filled the strike zone like a coloring book, toying with the Cardinals for six strong innings. Fastballs and sinkers, up and in, down and away, across, at and around the plate. Anyway he could.
Where a year ago — really, the past five years — the Rockies flittered away tight, low-run games waiting on a home run, they are showing this time it may be possible to win with pitching.
Bettis helped Colorado kick off a nine-game road trip Tuesday by picking away at the Cardinals for a 3-1, cold-weather victory in front of 41,109 fans at Busch Stadium.
“He was in control all night,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “That’s what we want to do against everybody. We want to force swings. Just attack, attack — with all our weapons.”
The Rockies (20-18), in their first game of a long trek east through St. Louis (20-19), Pittsburgh and Boston that will test just how much they’ve improved, won their fifth game in a row.
Bettis’ line over 6 innings was hardly spectacular. But it was highly effective. He struck out four and walked two. Jeremy Hazelbaker’s puny infield single in the fifth, a dribbler up the middle fielded on the grass by Nolan Arenado in a shift, was the Cardinals’ first hit.
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“That’s what I like from our pitching this year. Our walk numbers are down,” Weiss said. “For the last couple years, we’ve led the National League in walks. We’re not going to do that this year. I said to our pitching staff: ‘It won’t happen this year.’ “
In his first two innings, Bettis threw 24 pitches — 22 of them fastballs — and he was perfect. He didn’t allow a baserunner until Kolten Wong walked in the third.
“We ran with it,” Bettis said of his fastball-heavy plan of two- and four-seamers. “And when they made an adjustment, we tried to stay ahead of them.”
The Rockies earned four shutouts last season. They’ve already matched that mark this year through seven weeks. But Randal Grichuk ruined a shot at a fifth with an RBI single in the seventh. Three St. Louis singles that inning pushed Aledmys Diaz around, the only run Bettis allowed. But by then, the Rockies had a 3-1 lead.
Offensively, Colorado was just as efficient. Nolan Arenado’s line-drive single to left in the third scored Charlie Blackmon, who had singled to center and stolen second base. Mark Reynolds’ leadoff walk in the top of the fourth inning turned into a run after Dustin Garneau knocked him in with a single on a hit-and-run play. And Bettis’ slug-bunt chopper up the middle scored DJ LeMahieu on a fielder’s choice.
“That game goes to Chad,” LeMahieu said. “That’s a big win to start a tough road trip.”
In a game between the National League’s two top slugging teams — the Cardinals rank No. 1 — there was not one extra-base hit. The Rockies last won a series in St. Louis in 2009. They had previously lost 17 of their past 21 games in Missouri.
“History shows that we’ve struggled more than most on the road,” Weiss said. “The road is a challenge for every club. But we’re better equipped offensively now. Even more importantly, we’re better on the mound. That’s the common denominator on the road or home.”
