DENVER — A blown lead and then a completely blown call at home plate nearly cost the Cardinals a victory Friday night in a chaotic sixth inning at Coors Field.

It took Ivan Herrera to lift them back into the lead.

The Cardinals’ designated hitter drilled a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to vaporize all of the frustration that had come three innings earlier and carry the Cardinals to a 7-6 victory against Colorado. Herrera’s homer traveled an estimated 430 feet to center field and exploited a walk and an error to upend the Rockies’ two-run lead.

Appearing for the third consecutive day, Riley O’Brien pitched around his own error for a scoreless ninth that cemented the come-from-behind win and his league-leading 36th save.

Colorado hit for the cycle as a lineup in the eventful sixth, and that was enough to erase the Cardinals’ three-run lead. What allowed the Rockies to break that tie and overtake the Cardinals for the lead they had in the ninth was a miss by home-plate umpire Doug Eddings. He called a sliding runner safe coming into home despite the runner having to go through rookie Leo Bernal’s glove to get there.

The Cardinals had no challenge remaining to overturn the call.

Their evening appeared lost as their ability to challenge.

The Rockies’ rally and Eddings' miss all came in the same inning when the Cardinals had a reliever make his major league debut and manager Oli Marmol make his exit. Marmol was furious about something that happened earlier in the inning, and Eddings tossed him. It was two batters later that the runner came streaking home, through Bernal’s glove, and to the plate for the tiebreaking run.

The Cardinals began building their lead in the second inning with Nolan Gorman’s first hit with a runner in scoring position in the majors since May and Thomas Saggese’s third RBI hit in his past four games. Jordan Walker brought home his 100th RBI of the season to push the Cardinals’ lead to 4-1.

Within the span of six Rockies in the sixth – all of whom reached base – it was gone.

Saggese opened the ninth with a walk and stole second. Jose Fermin reached base on a throwing error that put the tying run in scoring position. Herrera would have scored them both from any base with his bolt against Rockies reliever Jordan Romano and his 15th homer of the season.

Rockies take lead on missed call

When the Cardinals really needed a challenge to change the game, they no longer had one or their manager in the dugout to call it if they did.

The sixth inning had already gone sideways on the Cardinals when it also put them behind in the game on a call that would have been quickly overturned on replay.

The Rockies’ No. 9 hitter Zac Veen dropped a bunt that did not travel far from home plate. Troy Johnston attempted to score from third, but as he slid home, catcher Leo Bernal had the ball in his grasp and appeared to hold the mitt for Johnston to slide into. The mitt glided up Johnston’s arm before he reached home with it.

Eddings called him safe for a 5-4 lead.

The Cardinals could not challenge because they spent theirs earlier in the inning on a less obvious call. Rockies rookie TJ Rumfield raced for a third and arrived just as Walker’s throw from right field did. Third baseman Nolan Gorman dove to apply the tag and it was a close call between his glove making contact and Rumfield’s cleat catching third. The Cardinals challenged the call, and the replay officials in Manhattan confirmed that the call on the field — safe — was the correct call.

Eddings enthusiastically announced the ruling to the crowd.

As a result, the Cardinals lost their challenge.

It was only a few minutes later that Marmol was out arguing with Eddings about another call. Marmol appeared to be taking issue with a Rockies runner who may have missed third base. There was not a chance to ask Eddings or Marmol about the exchange before this article was published. Once the inning resumed, Marmol continued from the dugout and Eddings ejected him.

The ejection was his fourth of the season and 25th of his career.

It came two batters before Veen’s bunt and Eddings’ call at home that changed the game and would have been swiftly overturned on replay.

The Cardinals just didn’t have a challenge to use.

Rockies rally, hit for cycle in 6th

The prelude to that erroneous play at the plate was a comeback that featured a cycle.

The inning began with the Cardinals leading by three runs and using the opportunity to get rookie Hancel Rincon into the game for the first time. Promoted from Memphis when rosters expanded on Sept. 1, Rincon did not appear in the Dodgers series. It did not take long for his debut to end and the Rockies’ rally to start.

Rumfield met Rincon with a fly ball that caromed off the right-field scoreboard and bounced over the reach of Walker. He reached third despite some dispute (see above). The next Rincon pitch put in play shortstop Cole Carrigg drilled to deep center field. The ball ricocheted off the highest partition in center and bounced away from center fielder Nathan Church and toward left field. Walker had to track it down — to give you a sense of how far away it was from a Cardinals’ fielder.

Carrigg took advantage and peeled around the bases for an inside-the-park home run — his first of the season and the Rockies’ third.

Colorado got a single from Connor Norby.

And they completed the inning cycle with Johnston’s double.

On four consecutive Rockies batters hit for the cycle and produced four runs to tie the score, 4-4. All of that also put the go-ahead run in scoring position. But that’s another story that you already read. It involved a missed call at home plate by an umpire who had just argued with the manager and ejected him moments earlier.

Walker joins 100 club

It was definitely one of the more curious ways to go and get a 100th RBI but it put Walker into exclusive company the Cardinals have rarely had in recent years.

In the fifth inning, as the Cardinals constructed a 4-1 lead, Walker lofted a fly ball to center field. Teammate Nathan Church opened the inning with a single and stole second before scoring on an infield hit for Alec Burleson’s 102nd RBI. That put Bryan Torres at third for Walker, and the Cardinals’ cleanup hitter sent a pitch to center with plenty of distance to score Torres.

The out was caught in center.

Torres scored from third.

But in the hurly-burly that followed, Herrera was caught of second base and thrown out for the second out on the play. Walker did get credit for the RBI to vault him into the 100-RBI club along with Burleson.

Walker is the Cardinals’ first homegrown outfielder to reach 100 RBIs since Ray Lankford, in part because some of the players who did play outfield in the majors (see: Pujols, Albert) advanced as infielders in the minors. Walker and Burleson are the first pair of Cardinals with 100 RBIs each since 2022 when Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado had MVP-caliber seasons to go with more than 100 RBIs apiece.

Walker and Burleson are the first right-left combo of Cardinals with 100 RBIs each since 2004 and the MV3 of Pujols and Scott Rolen from the right and Jim Edmonds from the left.

Pallante solid in return from IL

The Cardinals knew the combination of coming off the injured list and into Coors Field would limit the pitches they could expect from starter Pallante. He has felt good during his recovery from elbow soreness that put him on the 15-day IL, and he returned just about as swiftly as possible, missing only two starts on his schedule.

Pallante had a 50-pitch live batting practice to prepare for his start Friday and an earlier flight than his teammates, who reached their hotel at 4 a.m. Denver time.

He pitched well through five innings by avoiding the trouble his walks could have caused. Pallante walked two batters with two outs in the third inning, and then Carrigg did him a favor by jumping on the very next pitch for a groundout. The only run to score against Pallante in the game came from the first batter of the bottom of the first inning. Rockies leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy walked against Pallante, stole second on Pallante, and then scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game, 1-1.

That was it for the Rockies until Pallante ran up against the pitch limits for his return from the IL at altitude and turned the game over to the bullpen. It took the right-hander 72 pitches to get 15 outs.

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