Colorado @ St. Louis preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 13, 2011 ) Colorado 6, St. Louis 1

THE STORY: The Colorado Rockies have a long way to go to get back in the National League West race, but they have a chance to finish a winning road trip with a victory Sunday night on national television. The Rockies will send improving Esmil Rogers to the mound to try to get that done against hard-throwing Edwin Jackson and the host St. Louis Cardinals, who have fallen five behind Milwaukee in the NL Central. Colorado, 3-3 on the trip, will head home to play their next nine games. The Cardinals, who take to the road for the next six after Sunday, have won six of their last nine.

TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, ESPN

PITCHING MATCHUP: Rockies RH Esmil Rogers (6-1, 5.85 ERA) vs. Cardinals RH Edwin Jackson (8-8, 4.07).

Rogers has won three straight starts since put in that role, allowing four runs total. He has walked 20 in 40 innings. Rogers is 0-1 in six innings against the Cardinals, allowing four earned runs. Matt Holliday has homered and Skip Schumaker is 3-for-4 against Rogers. Jackson is 1-1 in three starts since being acquired by the Cardinals. He gave up two earned runs in six innings against Milwaukee on Tuesday, but did not get a decision. Jackson has not had much luck with the Rockies, going 0-2 while allowing 32 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings. Jason Giambi is 5-for-16 with a homer and five RBIs against Jackson.

ABOUT THE ROCKIES (56-65): Carlos Gonzalez has looked more like the 2010 version of himself the last two days. Gonzalez has homered in each of the first two games of the series and knocked in five to push his totals to 18 and 65, respectively. Three of his last four hits were homers. Todd Helton has also come up big, going 7-for-20 in the last five games with five RBIs. Eric Young Jr., who hit less than .170 in June and July, has warmed up with 11 hits in 37 at bats in August - including a pair of singles and two runs scored Saturday. Mark Ellis is 8-for-24 his last seven games.

ABOUT THE CARDINALS (64-56): Even though the Cardinals scored only once Saturday, they could have gotten themselves back in the game in the seventh. But Colorado third baseman Chris Nelson took a double and perhaps two RBIs away from Ryan Theriot with a diving catch. St. Louis will just take it as a blip on the screen. Lance Berkman and Rafael Furcal each extended their hit streaks to eight games. Berkman is 12-for-29 in that stretch and Furcal 9-for-35. Schumaker, 9-for-21 in his last nine games, got the night off but is expected back at second base Sunday.

FINAL PITCH: Arthur Rhodes, released by Texas earlier in August, was signed by the Cardinals on Friday and will be the lefty specialist in the bullpen. That will allow lefthander Marc Rzepczynski to pitch in middle relief when needed. The Cardinals have used 18 relievers this season, including five lefties.