The Colorado Rockies are giving Todd Helton a thrilling curtain call to his 17-year career.

Corey Dickerson’s RBI triple with one out in the bottom of the 15th inning gave the Rockies a 7-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday.

Charlie Blackmon finished with four hits and Troy Tulowitzki and 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.

“We control our own fate here,” Cardinals infielder Pete Kozma said. “Losing games like this hurts a little bit. We still got to play. We keep on playing the way we have been, we’ll be OK.”

The game took 5 hours, 9 minutes and depleted both bullpens and benches in what became a game of attrition. St. Louis used 10 pitchers and five bench players but still came away on the losing end.

“You look on the other side, that’s got to be a tough game for them,” Tulowitzki said. “To play that many innings, lose, we’ll see if that affects them. Just being a baseball fan you want to see if that affects them down the stretch.”

In the first inning, Helton tagged out Matt Carpenter at first with the hidden-ball trick. After Roy Oswalt threw to first, Helton feigned a throw back to the mound and tagged Carpenter when he stepped off the bag to end the inning.

“(Oswalt) picked over the time before and threw it back and turned around and watched him step off the back of the bag,” Helton said. “I was hoping he was going to pick again and he did. It worked. It’s never worked. I’ve done it five or six times, giving it a half-hearted effort. I can’t believe it worked. It’s one of those things I wanted to do my whole career.”

The game contained many twists besides the hidden-ball trick. There were two late-inning comebacks by Colorado and a dramatic home run to send the game into extra innings by the Rockies first baseman who is entering the last 10 days of his career.

“It doesn’t (get any better), especially with it being Todd’s last week and his home run to keep us in the game,” Dickerson said.

The dramatic finish, however, belonged to Colorado’s young players.

DJ LeMahieu started the winning rally with a one-out single to right off Fernando Salas (0-3). Dickerson then drilled a line drive into the right-field corner as LeMahieu rounded the bases. The relay from second baseman Carpenter beat LeMahieu but catcher Yadier Molina couldn’t control the ball as LeMahieu crawled to touch home.

It was Dickerson’s second triple of the game and sixth of the season. Rob Scahill (1-0), Colorado’s 10th pitcher, got the win.

“That late in the game, you have to take that chance,” Dickerson said of LeMahieu’s dash home. “I was already going to be on third for Tulo. That was a good chance right there.”

The Cardinals loaded the bases in the 15th but Kozma hit into a double play to end the inning.

“We had plenty of chances throughout that whole game,” Kozma said. “That was probably our best chance.”

It capped a long day in which 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, sending an 0-1 offering into the Rockies bullpen to lead off the ninth and tie it at 6-all.

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

“Everyone remembers the hit that wins the game but the hit that ties the game is as clutch as it gets,” manager Walt Weiss said.

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-all with an RBI single in the fifth.

“We’ve seen this team do that pretty consistently through this season,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said of the comeback. “That tells about the character of this club, and I think it’s going to serve us well as we move closer toward the end here and hopefully we have a real strong finish.”

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 on Dickerson’s two-out triple.

Helton helped the Rockies take an early lead with a leadoff double in the second, his 588th career two-bagger. He moved to third on Charlie Culberson’s infield single and scored on Yorvit Torrealba’s blooper to right.

Culberson scored on a double play to make it 2-0.

Tulowitzki’s two-run homer in the third made it 4-0. It was his 23rd of the season.

— Associated Press —

Adam Wainwright pitched effectively into the eighth after a shaky start and helped himself at the plate with three hits as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Colorado Rockies 4-3 on Wednesday night to expand their lead in the NL Central race.

Wainwright (17-9) gave up two runs in the first and then found his groove to earn his 17th win, second-most in the NL this season.

He went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBIs to help the Cardinals stretch their lead to two games over Pittsburgh after the Pirates lost 3-2 loss to San Diego. St. Louis also reduced its magic number for clinching a playoff spot to three with 10 games to play.

Tyler Chatwood (7-5) allowed four runs in six innings before being lifted for a pinch hitter. Chatwood is rounding back into form after missing nearly a month with an inflamed right elbow.

The hard-throwing Wainwright allowed 10 hits and struck out eight before running into a jam with two on and two outs in the eighth. Reliever Trevor Rosenthal got Charlie Blackmon to ground out to end the threat. Edward Mujica pitched his way out of a bases loaded mess in ninth for his 37th save in 40 chances. He struck out Todd Helton, who’s retiring at the end of the season, to quiet the cheering crowd and end the game.

Michael Cuddyer remains the NL batting leader, keeping his average at .331 after going 1 for 3 on Wednesday. Cuddyer left the game shortly after making an inning-ending diving catch in the sixth. The team announced he was day to day with a bruised right forearm.

Cuddyer, a career .271 hitter entering this season, has a slight lead in the batting race over Atlanta’s Chris Johnson (.327).

St. Louis solve Chatwood in the third, stringing together four straight hits to tie the game at 2-all. Wainwright had an RBI double and Matt Carpenter followed with a run-scoring single. Carpenter now has 67 RBIs from the leadoff spot, the most by a Cardinals player since Lou Brock had 76 in 1967.

The Cardinals took the lead for good in the fourth when Yadier Molina led off the inning with a double and was brought home by Wainwright’s single. He now has five RBIs this season.

The Rockies began the game with four straight hits off Wainwright, including a two-run single by Troy Tulowitzki. That was certainly more offense than the Rockies had off Wainwright in May, when the Cardinals ace took a no-hitter into the eighth and finished with a two-hitter during a 3-0 victory.

Wainwright escaped more trouble in the first by getting Helton to hit into a 3-6-1 double play. Jordan Pacheco followed by lining out to Matt Adams to end the inning.

This is Helton’s last hurrah after announcing he was calling it a career after 17 years. Manager Walt Weiss said he plans to start Helton in each of the remaining nine games.

“I’m going to play him as much as he’s physically able to do it,” Weiss said. “Give the fans an opportunity to see him.”

Helton had a double in the sixth, the 587th of his career.

— Associated Press —