Arenado Homers as Rockies Beat

Here are Heartland sports scores from Friday 7/31.

In the 100th game of the season for the Colorado Rockies, it’s become official that the feel-good story that was relief pitcher John Axford has quickly dissolved into a nightmare.

The St. Louis Cardinals have acquired reliever Jonathan Broxton from the Milwaukee Brewers, supplementing their bullpen with another veteran.

Billy Pierce, a seven-time All-Star pitcher who played in two World Series and retired after spending most of his 18 years in the majors with the Chicago White Sox, has died at the age of 88. Seth Maness gave up a home run in the sixth to Nick Hundley to re-tie the game 6-6. I get you want a fast runner at third in case there’s a force at home, and Wong gets thrown out, but why not just wait until that actually happens? In the bottom of the second inning, with Yadier Molina and Steven Piscotty on base, the Galveston Grinder hit his 11th home run of the year – a shot to straightaway center field on a breaking ball that never broke.

Colorado Rockies slugger Nolan Arenado cranked a two-run home run in the top of the fourth to extend his team’s lead over the Cardinals. I have to admit, I didn’t see this inning and I don’t know what that means.

The St. Louis Cardinals have shown a knack for winning while short-handed throughout much of this season, and their first game without Matt Holliday was no different.

“It was a fastball out over the plate”, Lynn said.

Lynn allowed Ben Paulsen to homer on the first pitch of the inning, and it went 436 feet.

When batting leadoff: (23 games) 36-for-96 (.375) with 13 doubles, seven home runs.

“If somebody’s doing well in a certain spot, we’re most likely going to go ahead and not mess with anything”, Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. Now he gets a chance to prove it.

St. Louis shortstop Jhonny Peralta hit his team-leading 16th home run in the fourth.

Gonzalez, a subject of numerous trade rumors, said he wasn’t anxious about Friday’s non-waiver trade deadline. St. Louis, which improved to 24-10 in its last 34 meetings with Colorado, upped its mark to 38-15 at Busch Stadium this season while the Rockies fell for the 17th time in its last 22 road contests. To make room for Broxton on the 40-man roster, the Cardinals designated RHP Marcus Hatley for assignment. Walden (right bicep) threw 21 pitches, struck out two and walked one.

Despite having the best record in Major League Baseball, the Cardinals at various junctions in the 2015 season have been short in opportunities for the manufacturing of run production.

Cardinals LHP Jaime Garcia (3-4, 2.00 ERA) will face LHP Yohan Flande (1-1, 3.68 ERA) in the series finale Sunday.

Axford (3-5) took his third loss in his last four outings.