home run off Denny Neagle in a 13–9 loss to Colorado at Coors Field. On April 18, he walked and scored the winning run on a wild pitch by Randy Johnson in a 3–1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks. He had a pinch hit single on May 10 against Pittsburgh that provided the winning run in an 11–5 victory. His RBI single off John Rocker of Cleveland on July 8 gave the Cardinals a 4–3 victory. However, his batting average was only .226 by July 26. Rentería batted .299 in his last 58 games, though, to raise his batting average to .260 by the end of the season. During those games, Rentería had a ten-game hitting streak from August 8 to 17. Rentería finished the season with seventeen stolen bases, which led the Cardinals. In Game 3 of the 2001 NLDS, Rentería hit his first playoff home run, off Brian Anderson of Arizona, in a 5–3 loss. However, the Diamondbacks defeated the Cardinals in five games on their way to winning the World Series. 2002 Rentería enjoyed a better season in 2002. On April 10, he had three hits (including a game-tying single in the ninth inning) in a 6–5 win over Milwaukee. On May 6, he hit his first home run since August 20 of the previous year in a 6–5 loss to the Cubs. Four days later, he hit a game-winning home run off Cincinnati's closer Danny Graves in a 4–2 victory. On June 27, he hit his nineteenth double, which tied his 2001 season total. He got his one thousandth hit on July 26 off Jon Lieber of the Cubs in an 8–4 victory. Two nights later against the Cubs, he hit a three-run game-winning home run to cap off a six-run ninth inning by the Cardinals that won the game 10–9. Two nights after that, he hit two home runs in a 5–0 victory over the Marlins. On August 18, he hit his first career grand slam to lift the Cardinals to a 5–1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. He hit another grand slam on September 4 and had a career-high five RBI in a 10–5 victory over Cincinnati. He finished the season with a .305 batting average and 166 hits, and he won his second Silver Slugger Award. He also won his first Gold Glove Award, and he became the first Cardinals' shortstop to win