Cards drop 15-inning marathon to Rockies

~ St. Louis had its lead in the NL Central cut to one game

DENVER -- Shortstop Pete Kozma could see the situation coming, his chance in the 15th inning to give the St. Louis Cardinals a hard-fought victory.

The Colorado Rockies intentionally walked Yadier Molina with one out and runners on first and third to load the bases for Kozma.

Batting against Rob Scahill, Kozma grounded into a double play. Corey Dickerson's RBI triple with one out in the bottom of the inning gave the Rockies a 7-6 victory in a marathon that lasted 5 hours, 9 minutes.

"He's a good sinkerball pitcher," Kozma said about Scahill. "Faced him a couple times in the minors. I was just looking for something to get up and drive. I had something to hit and didn't do anything with it."

What Kozma did was fire his helmet to the ground in disgust. He entered the game hitting just .218, but with a .324 average with runners in scoring position. It is rare for Kozma to show emotion, but this was not just any clutch situation.

"Game on the line," Kozma said. "The game lasts six hours or however long it lasted. Everybody was feeling something, especially at that point."

Charlie Blackmon finished with four hits and Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton homered for the Rockies in tying the second-longest game in Coors Field history.

Matt Holliday had three hits for the Cardinals, who had their NL Central Division lead over Pittsburgh trimmed to one game. The Pirates beat San Diego 10-1 on Thursday.

DJ LeMahieu started the winning rally with a one-out single to right. Dickerson then drilled a line drive into the right-field corner as LeMahieu rounded the bases. The relay from second baseman Matt Carpenter beat LeMahieu but catcher Molina couldn't control the one-hop throw as LeMahieu crawled to touch home.

It was Dickerson's second triple of the game and sixth of the season.

The teams traded late-game rallies.

Helton, who struck out with the bases loaded to end Wednesday's game, turned on Edward Mujica's fastball Thursday and drove an 0-1 offering into the Rockies bullpen to lead off the ninth and tie it at 6-6.

It was Mujica's fourth blown save in 41 chances.

Holliday hit his former team hard, going 8 for 21 with a home run, four walks and four RBIs in the series. He reached base in six straight at-bats Thursday and was poised to be the hero with his RBI single in the ninth before Helton tied it with his 14th home run of the season.

It was part of a back-and-forth that saw the Cardinals rally from four runs down but blow two late leads.

Trailing 4-0, the Cardinals got within a run in the fourth. Oswalt walked the first two batters, Carlos Beltran singled to score Jon Jay and Holliday came home on a sacrifice fly.

Tony Cruz doubled off the wall in left to make it 4-3.

Holliday tied it at 4-4 with an RBI single in the fifth.

David Freese gave the Cardinals a 5-4 lead in the eighth with an RBI double to center, but Colorado tied it in the bottom of the inning.