DENVER (Ticker) -- Mike Matheny might be in the midst of a hot streak, but he always has hit well against the Colorado Rockies.
Matheny's three-run homer off the glove of left fielder Gabe Kapler in the top of the 13th inning snapped a tie as the St. Louis Cardinals outlasted the Rockies, 15-12.
Scott Rolen opened the 13th against Dan Miceli (0-1) with a walk and, one batter later, Eduardo Perez singled to left. Matheny then drove an 0-1 pitch to wall. Kapler appeared to have the ball lined up, but it hit off his glove and bounced over the wall for Matheny's first homer of the season.
"It is not like I crushed it, but I hit it good enough for this park," Matheny said. "They told me that he had it in his glove out there too, but we'll take it."
Matheny went 3-for-6 with four RBI and is among the leaders in the National League with a .500 batting average (13-for-26).
Jim Edmonds chipped in four hits, including two doubles and a homer, and drove in five runs as the Cardinals defeated the Rockies for the fourth straight time.
"I don't know what to say, I'm tired," Edmonds said. "It was a long game on both sides. A game like that, it just gets so long that you run out of pitching and hope no one gets hurt and someone wins eventually. We're very lucky to get a win tonight."
"In this park, there's a good chance its not going to go too long, you know there's gonna be some offense," Matheny added. "So we were hoping we could get some good innings out of our pitchers."
Cal Eldred (1-0), the eighth St. Louis pitcher, notched the win with two hitless innings.
Miceli was tagged for three hits and three walks in his two innings.
Colorado manager Clint Hurdle was ejected in the seventh by first base umpire Mike Dimuro. Hurdle took exception to a call on a pitch that hit Perez.
The Cardinals trailed 11-7 after six innings and St. Louis manager Tony La Russa felt the rally and the way the carried with it something special.
"It'd be nice if we had a great year and can look at this game, but I don't care what kind of year we have, this game we won't forget all year long," La Russa said. "There was so many heroics and ending up with Cal knowing he's the last guy out there getting six outs like that. It's unbelievable."
Colorado had numerous chances to win the game. In the ninth, Jay Payton - who had four hits - was thrown out at the plate by right fielder Eduardo Perez.
The Rockies left two aboard in the 10th and had first-and third with none out in the 11th but could not push the game-winner across.
"We got men on base, we couldn't score a run," Hurdle said. "We had ample opportunities to win this game tonight and we didn't do it. We didn't help ourselves offensively. ... We win as a team and we lost as a team tonight."
Neither starter was effective as St. Louis' Jason Simontacchi was tagged for five runs and seven hits in three-plus innings. Simontacchi, who won 11 games last season, was making his first appearance of 2003.
Colorado rookie starter Aaron Cook was hammered for seven runs and seven hits in five innings. In his two outings this season he has surrendered 15 hits over nine innings.
"If he continues to struggle it becomes a concern," Hurdle said of Cook. "He hasn't pitched well, he'll pitch better. I've got a lot of confidence in the young man. This is basically the first time he's struggled in the big leagues, everybody struggles in the big leagues. We'll find out how he deals with it."
"I've been throwing a lot of pitches, period," Cook said. "At this rate, it will make for a long season if things don't change and change soon. I might be looking at being on the busses (in Class AAA) again. I'm going to come in early tomorrow and start working to make a change."
Each team scored three runs in the first inning and the game was tied, 4-4, when Edmonds hit a three-run homer off Cook in the fourth. It was Edmonds' third homer of the season.
Colorado scored twice in their half of the fourth and scored five times in the sixth - capped by Charles Johnson's two-run homer - his first with the Rockies.
Trailing 11-7, St. Louis scored five times in the seventh to take the lead. Scott Rolen had an RBI single to start the scoring and Fernando Vina's two-out, two-run double gave the Cardinals the lead.
Colorado drew even in the bottom half of the inning when Todd Helton homered off Dustin Hermanson.
