Todd Helton began his farewell tour in familiar style – by getting a big hit for the Colorado Rockies.

Helton started his final homestand with a key single in the eighth inning that helped the Rockies beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 on Monday night.

Charlie Blackmon had three hits and drove in three runs for the Rockies, who prevented the Cardinals from taking over sole possession of first place in the NL Central. They remained tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates, who lost 2-0 to San Diego.

”We are aware of where we are,” St. Louis outfielder Matt Holliday said.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams had two hits each for the Cardinals.

Helton was playing in front of Colorado fans for the first time since he announced his plans to retire at the end of the season, his 17th. He went public Saturday when the Rockies were in Arizona, and Monday afternoon the team held a formal press conference.

Helton talked about his future without baseball during the day, but he was all business during the game.

He received a standing ovation when he came to the plate in the first, and Cardinals starter Lance Lynn stood behind the mound and waited as the crowd saluted Helton.

The first baseman was given a loud ovation in each of his four plate appearances. His night started slow, but he had a big hit during the decisive rally.

Troy Tulowitzki led off with a walk against reliever Trevor Rosenthal (2-4), and one out later Helton singled to center to put runners at the corners. Wilin Rosario singled to give Colorado a 3-2 lead.

”Todd had a huge hit. That was a huge hit in that inning,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. ”I don’t expect anything different. I think he’s going to have a huge homestand.”

Helton was caught in a rundown between third and home for the second out, but Blackmon doubled to right to score Josh Rutledge from first to make it 4-2.

Pinch-hitter Ryan Wheeler’s two-run single off John Axford gave the Rockies a 6-2 cushion.

”I had a pitch that could have been a double play and it turned out to be a flare into right field,” Axford said.

The four-run eighth was a rare misstep by the Cardinals’ bullpen.

”Overall our bullpen has been very, very good,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”They will bounce back.”

Collin McHugh started for Colorado in place of lefty Jorge De La Rosa, who has a sore thumb on his pitching hand that forced him to miss his turn in the rotation. McHugh allowed one run and four hits, with the only damage coming on David Freese’s RBI single in the fifth.

He left after throwing 75 pitches in five innings.

Lynn stuck around longer and got stronger as the game progressed. He scattered four hits through six innings and didn’t let a runner past first after Tulowitzki’s first-inning double before running into trouble in the seventh.

After Lynn retired Helton in a nine-pitch at-bat, Rosario singled and moved to third on Rutledge’s bloop single to right.

Left-hander Kevin Siegrist relieved Lynn, and Blackmon lined an RBI single over the pulled-in infield to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead.

”He throws really hard so I was trying to catch up to a fastball,” Blackmon said. ”I knew that was going to be a tough at-bat, just trying to battle from the start and get a good swing on it.”

The Cardinals tied it in the eighth on Carpenter’s RBI double off Chad Bettis (1-3) that scored pinch-runner Pete Kozma from second.

The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the first on Tulowitzki’s RBI double.

— Associated Press —

Yadier Molina never got down during his recent rut. So the All-Star catcher wasn’t about to celebrate after breaking out of the skid on Sunday.

Molina had a home run and three singles as Shelby Miller and the St. Louis Cardinals remained tied for first place in the NL Central with a 12-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Molina’s second-inning homer off Erasmo Ramirez (5-2) snapped an 0-for-15 skid.

”It’s not about one guy, it’s about the team,” Molina said. ”I came out aggressive. But right now, it’s just about getting wins.”

Molina scored three times and raised his batting average to .317.

”Yadi’s had a special offensive year,” manager Mike Matheny said. ”He’s been so good. I just want him to keep going and finish the season the way he started.”

Matt Adams also homered as St. Louis finished up a 7-2 homestand and kept pace with Pittsburgh. Both teams are 87-62 with 13 games remaining.

Miller (14-9) gave up one earned run and three hits in five innings. He became the first St. Louis rookie to reach 14 wins in a season since Dick Hughes won 16 in 1967.

St. Louis got 19 hits after totaling just three runs on seven hits over the first two games of the series.

Matt Carpenter keyed the fourth-inning burst with a two-run bases-loaded single. Daniel Descalso and Matt Holliday also had RBI hits in the inning.

”The offense really showed up today,” Carpenter said. ”We were able to score some runs. That’s just the way it goes some times. There’s no rhyme or reason for why that happens, it’s just baseball.”

The Cardinals’ hit total was their second-highest total this season. The Cardinals had 21 hits in a 10-6 win against the Chicago Cubs on July 14.

”We took a lot of those grinding at-bats that we keep talking about,” Matheny said. ”They went deep in counts, they stayed within the zone and fouled off some tough ones. We’ve got everybody feeling right and contributing.”

The Cardinals batted around in the fourth and fifth, scoring four runs in each inning to hand Seattle its sixth loss in seven games.

Holliday and Carpenter finished with three hits and two RBIs two apiece.

Adams pushed the lead to 7-2 with his 14th homer to highlight the fifth.

Miller did not allow a hit in the first three innings and managed to battle through the fourth and fifth despite not having what he called his best stuff.

”Today I didn’t do the best job of attacking hitters,” Miller said. ”I was losing the strike zone, but I just kept battling through it.”

Seattle manager Eric Wedge was not surprised to see the Cardinals’ hitters break loose after struggling in back-to-back games.

”They really put it together today,” Wedge said. ”You look at their top five guys, they all have quite a bit to offer.”

Ramirez had pitched into the sixth inning in each of his last six starts, but was unable to hold off the Cardinals.

”I just kind of fell apart in that one inning,” he said. ”I got a little behind the count and I threw my fastball too much.”

— Associated Press —

Milwaukee Brewers rookie Tyler Thornburg found himself in the middle of a pennant race Thursday night, even though it was only in a spoiler role.

”You always want to try and make it as tough for those teams who have something to play for,” he said.

Thornburg did just that, tossing six solid innings to lead the Brewers over St. Louis 5-3. Sean Halton homered for Milwaukee, which snapped the Cardinals’ five-game winning streak.

St. Louis fell into a tie with Pittsburgh for the top spot in the NL Central. Both teams are 85-61 with 16 games remaining. The idle Cincinnati Reds are 2 1/2 back.

Milwaukee broke a three-game losing streak against St. Louis and beat the Cardinals for only the fourth time in 16 meetings this season.

”It’s important to beat these guys. They’ve been taking it to us pretty good,” manager Ron Roenicke said. ”We played a good game today. There were a lot of good things that happened.”

The Cardinals are 5-1 on their nine-game homestand.

Thornburg (2-1), making his eighth career start, gave up two runs and three hits. He spent most of the season with Triple-A Nashville, going 0-9 with a 5.79 ERA in 15 starts.

Thornburg struck out six and walked two. He has allowed two runs or fewer and gone six innings in all five major league starts this season.

Jim Henderson earned his 25th save in 29 opportunities.

”I thought I threw the ball pretty well,” Thornburg said. ”I was locating my fastball pretty well. Everything felt good.”

St. Louis outfielder Carlos Beltran was impressed with the right-hander.

”The first couple of at-bats you’re kind of like wondering, watching what he’s trying to do,” he said. ”We just couldn’t do anything against him.”

Halton, who had three RBIs, hit a two-run homer off Joe Kelly (8-4) in the fourth to put the Brewers up 4-0. Halton also had a run-scoring single in the second.

The round-tripper was the biggest hit of the season for Halton, a rookie starting his 15th game.

”This is as good as it gets for a guy like me,” he said. ”Getting called up in September, that’s all you can ask for is to be a factor.”

Like Thornburg, Halton loves the spoiler role.

”We’re in a (pennant) race all right, a race to knock someone else out,” he said.

The Brewers jumped on Kelly, who allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits in five innings. He won his previous five starts, and the Cardinals had won his last eight.

”My stuff felt good, I just missed on a couple pitches,” Kelly said. ”They didn’t hit the ball extremely hard. I just left some pitches up.”

Matt Adams hit a two-out solo homer in the ninth, his 13th of the season.

The Brewers scored single runs in each of the first two innings. Scooter Gennett and Jonathan Lucroy singled in the first, and Gennett came around on a groundout by Aramis Ramirez.

The Cardinals pulled to 4-2 in the fourth on a run-scoring double by Matt Holliday and a sacrifice fly by David Freese. They also put two on with one out in the sixth, but Thornburg retired Beltran and Freese to end the threat.

”We just had a lot of things not really going the way we wanted them to,” St. Louis manager Mike Matheny said. ”We hit a few balls hard, but (Thornburg) threw a good game against us.”

— Associated Press —

Matt Holliday’s two-run home run in the sixth inning stunned Wily Peralta with the St. Louis Cardinals’ first hit and rookie Shelby Miller blanked the Milwaukee Brewers into the seventh inning of a 4-2 victory Tuesday night.

Norichika Aoki of the Brewers struck out three times for the first time in the majors, the last against rookie lefty Kevin Siegrist with a runner on second to end the seventh. Aoki entered the game as the toughest batter to fan in the majors this year, averaging one per 17.2 at-bats.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Adams added RBIs in the seventh and eighth for the NL Central leaders, who are 4-0 to begin a nine-game homestand. After a day off, the Cardinals built on momentum from a three-game sweep of Pittsburgh.

The 22-year-old Miller (13-9) emphasized more off-speed deliveries to keep the pitch count down and allowed five hits with four strikeouts and two walks in 6 2-3 innings. He’s 3-0 with a 1.08 ERA in four starts against Milwaukee, the other two wins coming on the road.

Peralta (9-15) was significantly improved over his first two starts against the Cardinals, both in May, in which he allowed 12 runs and 22 hits in 9 1-3 innings. In 6 2-3 innings he was charged with three runs and three hits with seven strikeouts.

The Brewers avoided getting shut out for a third time by St. Louis on pinch-hitter Logan Schafer’s two-run homer off Edward Mujica in the ninth.

Peralta struck out five of the first seven hitters and the Cardinals had two baserunners the first five innings: a walk by Holliday in the fourth and first baseman Jonathan Lucroy’s error on a dropped throw in the third. Aoki kept the no-hitter going with a sliding catch down the right field line that robbed David Freese of a hit opening the fifth.

Holliday fouled balls off his left foot or ankle three times the first two at-bats, near where he’s wearing a guard from previous occurrences. Carpenter walked to open the sixth and Holliday saw just one pitch his third time against Peralta, hammering a fastball an estimated 424 feet to left-center for his 19th homer.

Siegrist, a 41st-round draft pick, has worked 18 consecutive scoreless innings and has held left-handed hitters to just four hits in 53 at-bats.

Rookie Scooter Gennett of Milwaukee had two hits and is batting .394

Brett Hull chucked a side-armed ceremonial first pitch, a day after the hockey Hall of Famer rejoined the St. Louis Blues as an executive vice president.

— Associated Press —