DENVER (AP) — The St. Louis Cardinals had the upper hand from the start on a day the ball was flying out of Coors Field.

Dexter Fowler and Kolten Wong opened the game with successive home runs and the Cardinals connected five times in all, beating the Colorado Rockies 10-3 on Thursday.

Marcell Ozuna, Rangel Ravelo and Harrison Bader also homered for St. Louis, which holds a four-game lead over Chicago and Milwaukee atop the NL Central.

“A day game here, the ball always flies, but you’ve still got to put the barrel on it,” said Fowler, who spent the first six years of his career with Colorado. “It was good to get us started like that.”

Limited to a total of two runs in losing the first two games of the series at Coors Field, the Cardinals quickly bounced back.

Fowler drove the first pitch of the game from Tim Melville into the second deck and Wong followed with a drive that soared over the center field wall.

“I knew he wasn’t going to throw me many fastballs,” Fowler said. “I looked at some video and he was throwing a lot of sliders, so I just hit the first one (fastball).”

Nolan Arenado homered and doubled to drive in a pair of runs for Colorado. Josh Fuentes hit his first big league home run.

Miles Mikolas (9-13) went five innings and allowed three runs on five hits. He struck out five and walked one.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Return home for a key series against NL Central Division rival Milwaukee with RHP Adam Wainwright (11-9, 4.16 ERA) slated to pitch Friday night’s opener. Wainwright’s 16 career wins against the Brewers are the most among active pitchers.

Rockies: RHP Jeff Hoffman (1-6, 7.06 ERA) is making his sixth start this season at home, where he has gone 1-3 with a 7.33 ERA as Colorado opens a series against San Diego. He’s bidding for his first win since May 29 against Arizona.