Rockies end season with a thud; Suppan pitches Cardinals to 6-1 victory for 5th straight win

Suppan pitches Cardinals past Rockies 6-1

ST. LOUIS — Jeff Suppan threw six scoreless innings and Matt Pagnozzi drove in two runs, sending the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.

St. Louis won its final five games, while Colorado ended the season with a thud. After an early September surge brought them within one game of the NL West lead, the Rockies lost eight in a row and 13 of 14.

The Cardinals held Colorado scoreless for a stretch of 30 1-3 innings on their way to sweeping the four-game series. Dexter Fowler broke the skid, the sixth-longest in the majors this season, with an eighth-inning home run.

Suppan (3-8) allowed five hits and improved to 7-2 against the Rockies. He struck out five and walked one, fanning three batters in his final inning.

St. Louis slugger Albert Pujols went 0 for 2 and finished the season with an NL-high 118 RBIs, one more than Colorado outfielder Carlos Gonzalez, who did not play Sunday.

Pujols drew a leadoff walk in the sixth and was promptly removed from the game for pinch-runner Allen Craig. Pujols received a standing ovation from the crowd and came out of the dugout to acknowledge the support. It was the first RBI crown for Pujols, who also led the NL with 42 home runs.

Gonzalez completed with the season with an NL-best .336 batting average.

Matt Holliday went 0 for 3 and finished with a .31208 average to edge Pujols (.31175) for tops on the team. Pujols led the club in hitting in each of the previous nine seasons. Holliday was removed before the seventh to loud applause.

The Cardinals got four successive hits off starter Esmail Rogers (2-3) to start the fourth inning. Pagnozzi and Brendan Ryan each drove in a run to push the lead to 4-0.

Pagnozzi added an RBI single in the seventh.

St. Louis scored a pair of unearned runs in the third on errors by infielders Clint Barmes and Chris Nelson on the same play.

Rogers allowed two earned runs in four innings.

NOTES: Holliday was 19 for 39 with seven home runs and 13 RBIs this season against Colorado and Oakland, his former teams. … Gonzalez went hitless in his last 12 at-bats. … The Rockies finished 35-23 in day games, the best percentage in the NL. … St. Louis manager Tony La Russa will celebrate his 66th birthday on Monday. … The game drew a crowd of 42,409, giving the Cardinals an average of 40,756 this season, fourth-best in the majors. St. Louis sold out 27 of 81 home games.