(Sports Network) - The Colorado Rockies had to come from behind to grab the National League Wild Card last season. So much for turning over a new leaf.

After rallying for a victory in their season opener, the defending NL champion Rockies will try to win the middle portion of their three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals tonight at Busch Stadium.

The Rockies won 13 of their final 14 games last year to reach the 90-win mark, and bested the San Diego Padres in an extra game to claim the wild card spot. Colorado then swept the Phillies and Diamondbacks in the playoffs to reach its first-ever World Series, although the club failed to win a game against the champion Boston Red Sox.

The Rockies didn't abandon their rallying ways in Tuesday's opener, as Colorado plated two runs in the eighth inning to record a 2-1 victory over the Cardinals.

St. Louis had a 5-1 lead in Monday's opener before rain washed out the game in the third inning. Starting over from scratch on Tuesday, Matt Holliday hit a ground ball to new Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus, who made a poor throw to first that allowed Troy Tulowitzki to come home with the tying run in the eighth.

After Colorado later loaded the bases, Jayson Nix worked a walk to force home the go-ahead run.

Taylor Buchholz (1-0) registered the victory after working out of a trouble in a scoreless seventh inning. Manny Corpas pitched a flawless ninth for the save.

Tulowitzki finished 3-for-4 with a run scored and Todd Helton -- making his 11th straight Opening Day start for Colorado -- added a pair of hits.

Last year's Opening Day starter for the Rockies, Aaron Cook, will toe the rubber tonight. Cook went 8-7 with a 4.12 earned run average in 25 starts with Colorado last year, but suffered an oblique injury in mid-August that caused him to miss the rest of the regular season.

He returned to the club to pitch Game 4 of the World Series against Boston, allowing three runs over six innings to take the loss.

Cook, a 29-year-old right-hander who signed a four-year contract extension with the Rockies in December, is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in six lifetime games (5 starts) versus the Cardinals. That includes a loss in his lone start against St. Louis last year.

Yadier Molina hit a solo home run in the fifth inning and Adam Kennedy finished with a pair of hits for the Cardinals, who saw Ryan Franklin (0-1) pitch poorly in the eighth. The right-hander gave up two runs on two hits and didn't record an out.

After getting an excellent start yesterday from the newly-acquired Kyle Lohse, who tossed five shutout innings and yielded just three hits, Todd Wellemeyer will start tonight's game for St. Louis.

Wellemeyer enters this season in a starting rotation for the first time in his career. The 29-year-old righty made 20 appearances last year with the Cardinals, 11 of those starts, and went 3-2 with a 3.11 earned run average. That came after 12 relief outings with Kansas City in which he went 0-1 with a 10.34 ERA.

Wellemeyer has pitched against the Rockies just three times in his career, going 2-0 with a 3.38 ERA against them. That includes a win in his lone start versus Colorado, in which he allowed three runs over five frames.

The Cardinals' loss to the Rockies on Tuesday was just their second home loss to the club in the last nine meetings held in St. Louis. The Cards are still 11-6 in their last 17 matchups with Colorado.