DENVER • As if teasing the best plotlines for another summer blockbuster, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny detailed each of the traits Friday that have made the Colorado Rockies the first-place Colorado Rockies as Memorial Day approaches.
He introduced a list that ranged from strong starting pitching to superb defense, stingy bullpen to an athletic lineup by calling Colorado “a legitimate club.”
And then he saw it all in person.
Against a Colorado club clicking in every way the Cardinals wish they could, Matheny’s club fell 10-0 at Coors Field. A taut, two-run game lost all its air in the eighth inning as the Rockies thrashed a total of three Cardinals pitchers for eight runs and nine hits.