DENVER -- A night that could have ended with a music-filled celebration in the Rockies’ clubhouse instead finished with Ryan McMahon’s quiet mea culpa.

McMahon’s error on Tommy Edman’s infield bouncer with two outs in the seventh opened the way for Paul Goldschmidt’s RBI walk the following plate appearance and Nolan Arenado’s bases-clearing double after that. The Cardinals scored three more runs in the top of the ninth to send the Rockies to a 9-6 defeat at Coors Field.

“That’s a play that I expect to make, one that really changed the outcome of this game,” McMahon said.

When the ball clanged off McMahon to the right of second base, a possible victory on a night full of good signs dribbled away.

In a six-inning start, Kyle Freeland gave up two solo home runs but finished the night with a 0.96 ERA on the season in an outing that he called “effectively wild” (effective, nonetheless). The Colorado offense that had managed four homers in the first five games of the season-opening homestand produced three on Tuesday -- Elias Díaz in the fourth inning, and McMahon for three runs and a C.J. Cron 479-footer immediately thereafter during a five-run fifth.

McMahon is normally sure-handed, whether playing third as in the past or second now, with 2022 Gold Glove Award-winner Brendan Rodgers possibly shelved for the year because of left shoulder surgery. But Tuesday fit an early season full of extremes.

On Saturday, he launched a 443-foot home run, but struck out his next three at-bats in a loss to the Nationals. He had been 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position before his seemingly game-turning homer off Miles Mikolas, but then came the error and strikeout looking against Cards closer Ryan Helsley with two on and no outs in the ninth.

Not that McMahon is counting, but the homer was his third -- one behind Cron for the team lead.

“I don’t care about personal stats at this point of my life,” McMahon said. “It’s about winning games. That’s a good ballclub over there -- but it’s a team we should have beat tonight.”

But McMahon can’t let the wild spins of fortune turn his head. In the second year of a six-year, $70 million deal, McMahon is expected to be part of a turnaround that may take awhile. The slog became a little muddier, at least temporarily, when an MRI confirmed that Rockies ace Germán Márquez has a right forearm strain and is likely to miss time -- and the rotation is already thin.

Others can share with McMahon the feeling that they could have kept the game in the Rockies’ pocket. Dinelson Lamet walked Goldschmidt to force in the first seventh-inning run, then gave up Arenado’s three-run double to tie the score. Pierce Johnson yielded three runs in the ninth, including Nolan Gorman's homer. It was his worst outing of the season after earning three saves in his past four appearances.

“It's gonna hurt tonight,” McMahon said. “I’ll think about it a little bit more, but try to forget about it, come back tomorrow and try to win a series.”