Rockies' nine-run avalanche buries Cards

~ Colorado used a big seventh inning to defeat St. Louis 11-4.

ST. LOUIS -- Jorge De La Rosa ended a six-game losing streak to start the season and had his first RBI on a bases-loaded walk in a breakway nine-run seventh inning in the Colorado Rockies' 11-4 win over St. Louis on Friday night.

Dexter Fowler homered for a 2-0 lead in the sixth and drew a bases-loaded walk one at-bat after the .056-hitting De La Rosa's free pass in the Rockies' biggest inning of the year. Todd Helton added a three-run double, and Ian Stewart had a three-run homer for Colorado, which scored 10 runs Thursday to beat Houston.

Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Ryan Ludwick homered for the Cardinals, who wasted a strong outing by Adam Wainwright (5-4). Molina hit his first homer since May 5 in the seventh, four innings after Helton hit him on the side of the head on a backswing.

Pujols was 1-for-4 to end a streak of 15 straight games in which he reached base at least twice, tying Keith Hernandez (1980) for the Cardinals' longest run in 50 years. Pete Rose's 20-game streak in 1979 is the longest in the majors over that span.

Rockies manager Jim Tracy put De La Rosa (1-6) on notice before the game, noting that it was a "performance business." De La Rosa allowed one run on four hits in seven innings to end a losing streak that had been tied with the Tigers' Armando Galarraga for the longest in the major leagues.

De La Rosa had lost his previous three starts, allowing 18 runs in 12 innings, and the Rockies entered averaging only 2.3 runs in his outings -- third-lowest in the NL. The Cardinals were 0 for 7 with five strikeouts with runners in scoring position the first six innings while falling behind, and De La Rosa ended up allowing three runs in 6 2-3 innings for his first victory in 11 starts since Sept. 25 at San Francisco.

The first seven Rockies reached safely in the seventh while victimizing relievers Dennys Reyes, Jason Motte and rookie Jess Todd, called up earlier in the day after Kyle Lohse went on the 15-day disabled list with a forearm injury. Todd allowed Stewart's three-run homer in his major league debut and gave up two runs in 1 2-3 innings.

Wainwright (5-4) retired 10 in a row, half of them on strikeouts, before Fowler lined a 2-0 pitch off the back of the bullpen wall in right leading off the sixth for a 2-0 lead. Fowler leads NL rookies with 43 hits and the homer was his first since April 12.

Pujols made a heady play at first base in the second, stepping on first on Seth Smith's grounder and then catching Stewart in a rundown between third and home for a double play.

Notes: Ludwick had been 2 for 26 with no RBIs since coming off the

DL from a hamstring injury before homering in the eighth. ... Wainwright is 2-1 with a 1.17 ERA in seven career games against the Rockies, three of them starts. ... Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki (left hand contusion) missed his fourth straight start. ... The Rockies' Carlos Gonzalez, a lineup scratch when he arrived late after his recall from Triple-A Colorado Springs, took over in center field in the seventh and grounded out to start the eighth. ... All but two of the Cardinals' last 15 homers have come with the bases empty.