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All-Star Hunter Goodman jolted the Cardinals and their current closer JoJo Romero with a two-run, pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning to send Colorado to a 6-5 victory Wednesday at Busch Stadium. The rupture was the Cardinals’ first significant late-game loss since the trade deadline shed three veteran relievers from the bullpen.

Two outs away from his fourth save of the month, Romero allowed the two-run homer to Goodman that sent the Cardinals to a sudden and sour series loss.

The Rockies (32-88), crumbling through a historically poor season, won their sixth series of the year. Two of those six series wins in 39 total series have come against the Cardinals (61-61).

In order, Kyle Leahy, Riley O’Brien, and Romero — the understudies taking the stage in late-inning roles from traded veterans — inherited a slim lead through the final three innings of Wednesday’s series-claiming victory. The Cardinals got home runs from left-handed batters Lars Nootbaar and Alec Burleson off left-handed starter Austin Gomber to vault them into a 5-4 lead that Romero took into the ninth.

Nootbaar’s homer in the fourth reclaimed a two-run lead.

Burleson’s two-run shot in the fifth helped set the ninth-inning margin.

The lead the Cardinals took early swelled to 5-2. But, Colorado remained pesky throughout, getting the leadoff hitter on base in each of the final six innings and nibbling away at the lead before Goodman’s chomp.

In the ninth, a leadoff walk to Kyle Karros brought the potential go ahead run to the plate and two pinch-hitters primed to provide it. Goodman took the second of the pinch-hit appearances against Romero and crushed a ball to dead-center field for a two-run, score-flipping home run. Goodman’s 24th home run of the season traveled 436 feet, six feet shy of the home run he hit to take Tuesday night’s game for the Rockies.

The Rockies got a run against Leahy with a sacrifice fly in the seventh to tighten the game. O’Brien retired three of the five batters he faced for a scoreless eighth.

That brought Romero in trying for his fourth save.

Right-hander Michael McGreevy faced the minimum through his first three innings and authored a quality start with six innings and three runs allowed. He left with the lead and what would have been his second win of the season against the Rockies. In three starts against Colorado, the young right-hander has held the Rockies to seven earned runs in 18 innings.

Nootbaar returns, rakes

Back from the bruised knee he sustained during Monday night’s game, Nootbaar returned to the lineup Wednesday as planned and did more than roam center field.

Starting against the lefty Gomber, Nootbaar also keyed two rallies.

His two-out single in the second inning sparked what became a 2-0 lead for the Cardinals when catcher Pedro Pages split the outfielders with a double. Thomas Saggese scored from first base on the double to follow Nootbaar home with the first runs of the game.

Batting seventh in the lineup, Nootbaar came up again two innings later and led off the fourth with a solo homer. Nootbaar’s bolt traveled an estimated 393 feet and reclaimed the Cardinals’ two-run lead. The Cardinals’ outfielder hit his 13th home run of the season. That trails only Burleson (15) and Willson Contreras (16) for the team lead.

In center field, Nootbaar tracked down a fly ball to deep center in the seventh inning that limited the Rockies to a sacrifice fly. He also was able to cover ground to get in front of novice outfielder Ivan Herrera and snag an out for McGreevy earlier in the game.

When Nootbaar shifted to left field to replace Herrera and improve the Cardinals’ defense in the eighth inning, Nootbaar caught all three outs to preserve a one-run lead.

McGreevy subdues Colorado

Like the starters before him in the series, McGreevy sped through his first look at the Rockies’ lineup. Veteran starter Miles Mikolas offered a scouting report on the Rockies earlier in the series when he described how eager the Rockies’ hitters were and how a contact-inviting pitcher could bend that to his benefit without experiencing too much damage.

McGreevy did that.

He struck out two in his first tour of the Rockies’ lineup, and got balls in play from the other seven. McGreevy faced the minimum through three innings with a dash of help from his catcher and the Rockies. In the second, the Cardinals challenged a possible pickoff at first base only to have the call stand after a length review. On the next pitch, Rockies outfielder Jordan Beck broke for second and was caught stealing by Pages.

All around that play were others by the Cardinals’ defense for McGreevy.

Thomas Saggese went to his backhand and threw to first while fading away from fair territory to still make the throw to first base for the out. Six of McGreevy’s first 11 outs came on the ground. A double play helped him preserve the lead in the fourth inning, and he also eased free of a potential mess in the fifth. The Rockies opened that inning with back-to-back singles. McGreevy ended it with three outs in the infield — including a lineup over second base to shortstop Masyn Winn.

McGreevy finished the quality start with nine groundouts.

Echoes of Arenado trade

On the field and active for Wednesday’s game between the Rockies and Cardinals was only player from the blockbuster trade that brought 10-time Gold Glove-winner Nolan Arenado to St. Louis ahead of the 2021 season. Arenado, on the injured list with a shoulder injury, started taking groundballs Wednesday in Jupiter, Florida, at the Cardinals’ training complex.

Meanwhile back in St. Louis, the pitcher the Cardinals dealt to the Rockies as a cornerstone of that deal — lefty Gomber — faced his first team for the second time this year and eighth appearance since the trade.

Winless in his first 10 starts of this season, Gomber had no chance at a win Wednesday when he left after five innings with the Rockies trailing. A fourth-round pick by the Cardinals in 2014, Gomber allowed five runs on nine hits. Both of the home runs he allowed were to left-handed batters, and he struck out two.

In five seasons with the Rockies, Gomber — who will be a free agent at season’s end — entered Wednesday’s game 28-43 with a 5.20 ERA. The start was his 108th for the Rockies.

Of the other players involved in the deal, the only other one to reach the majors with Colorado was Elehuris Montero. The corner infielder last played in the majors in 2024 and hit .205 for the Rockies. He also played 205 games for the Rockies in three seasons.