ST. LOUIS — Although their offense could not get fully off the ground in their first game back at Busch Stadium following Monday's trade deadline, the Cardinals pushed across enough runs Friday night against the Rockies to give their bullpen a lead they ultimately protected.

Lifted to a lead on two runs scored on sacrifice fly outs in the second inning and a solo homer by Ivan Herrera in the third, the Cardinals had four relievers combine to keep Colorado scoreless to secure a 3-2 win.

The effective relief work began with Justin Bruihl's scoreless sixth inning. He was followed by fellow lefty Caleb Ferguson's 1 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. Two outs were collected by Ryne Stanek. Three were secured in the ninth inning by closer Riley O'Brien for his 28th save of the year.

The combined effort came in relief of starter Kyle Leahy, who provided five innings and allowed two runs while striking out eight batters.

The Cardinals (58-58) received runs in the second inning from Nathan Church and Bryan Torres with deep fly outs that produced runs.

Amid a stretch in which his power numbers have dipped, Herrera provided the Cardinals with a run on a solo homer that marked his 13th of the year and third since the start of July. Herrera fouled off four of the first five pitches he saw in the third inning from Ryan Feltner before sending a 1-2 curveball 379 feet to left field for his first home run since July 26.

Breaking mix helps Leahy limit damage

Leahy had a runner reach base with a hit in each of the five innings he worked. Effective breaking pitches helped him limit damage when he faced traffic.

That theme began during Leahy’s first inning.

Rockies’ leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy reached second base with a hustle double to begin the series opener. Leahy snapped a 3-2 slider to Cole Carrigg that got a whiff for the inning’s first out. He threw an 0-2 curveball in the dirt to Mickey Moniak that got a whiff for the second out of the inning. And in the next at-bat, Leahy got Hunter Goodman to whiff on a 1-1 sweeper, which set up Leahy to use his sinker to freeze the two-time All-Star catcher for the third strikeout of the inning.

In the second inning, Leahy allowed back-to-back singles to open the frame and followed that by coaxing a back-to-back groundouts that advanced a runner home and another to third base. He kept the inning’s damage to one run by freezing Edouard Julien on a 1-2 sweeper that was overturned to a strike after an Automated Ball-Strike Challenge review. He used the sweeper in the third inning to get Goodman to swing and miss for out No. 3 while a runner stood on second base.

To begin his fourth inning, Leahy allowed a single and double that placed runners that put two runners into scoring position with no outs. He bounced a 2-2 curveball in the dirt to get Ezequiel Tovar to strike out swinging for the first out of the inning, which helped him wiggle out of the inning with one run after inducing a pair of groundouts against the next two batters he faced.

Leaving them loaded

Cardinals manager Oli Marmol turned to his bench in the sixth inning to counter the bullpen decision Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer made. The Cardinals wound up loading the bases in the inning but left the frame scoreless.

After Church drew a one-out walk against left-handed reliever Brennan Bernardino, who replaced Feltner following a walk to Masyn Winn, Marmol called on Jose Fermin to pinch-hit for the lefty Torres. Fermin struck out on five pitches after falling behind 0-2 in the count.

With another left-handed hitter due up behind Fermin, Marmol swapped in Blaze Jordan for Cesar Prieto. Jordan was plunked by a 1-2 curveball from Bernardino to load the bases for JJ Wetherholt.

Having reached base once in three plate appearances before the sixth inning, Wetherholt took the first two pitches he saw and fouled off the third to put him in a 1-2 count. He offered at the third one, a curveball placed on the outer half of the plate, and popped it up into foul territory, where it was secured by third baseman Willi Castro to end the inning.

Situational scoring

Jimmy Crooks’ leadoff single and a double by Winn in the very next at-bat set the stage for the Cardinals’ first chance to hit with runners in scoring position in the second inning. Situational hitting in the next two at-bats capitalized on the opportunity.

Hitting with two runners in scoring position, Church took a curveball at the top of the strike zone for ball one, then lifted a sinker Feltner threw over the middle of the plate and lifted it 375 feet to center field. The fly ball was deep enough to allow Crooks to tag up and score from third base and Winn to tag up to third base.

Winn’s decision to tag up put him 90 feet from home with Torres set to hit. With the Rockies’ infield drawn in, Torres lifted an 0-0 curveball to left field that was deep enough to allow Winn to score with ease.

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