Colorado Rockies at St. Louis Cardinals

The streak is still alive. Kyle Leahy may not have had his best stuff on Friday night, but he was able to turn in his eighth straight start of allowing two runs or less. The outing moves him into a tie with Detroit’s Troy Melton for the second-longest such streak in the Majors this season. But keeping the streak alive wasn’t easy. Leahy had to pitch around constant traffic on the bases, as the Rockies pounded out eight hits in his five innings in a 3-2 victory for the Cardinals, who have won four of their past five games. But Leahy allowed just two runs by bearing down in those stress-filled situations as the Rockies went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position against the Boulder, Colo., native. Eight strikeouts and zero walks also helped Leahy’s cause. “I had second and third twice, maybe less than two outs, and if you can mix in a strikeout there, and then a sac fly only brings in one instead of two sac flies bringing in two possibly,” Leahy said. “So, yeah, that was big, and just using my stuff in areas that I know it's effective and executing a pitch when you need to.” Leahy struck out the side after allowing a leadoff double to Jake McCarthy in the first inning, and he limited the damage to just one run in the second and fourth innings after the first two Colorado hitters reached. “He's one that's not going to get sped up, and he's able to lock in and not make the moment any bigger than it needs to be in order to execute his pitches,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “He showed that very well tonight. But when it was on the line, it's when he was at his best.” Leahy was aided by a double play after surrendering a leadoff single in the third and ended his night with strikeouts of Mickey Moniak and Hunter Goodman after another leadoff single by McCarthy in the fifth.