Over the last four days, the Rockies provided a tantalizing taste of the kind of baseball they are capable of playing.
Sunday afternoon at sun-soaked Coors Field, in their final game before the all-star break, the Rockies hammered out a season-high tying 17 hits to beat the Atlanta Braves, 11-3, and complete a rare four-game sweep. It was the first series sweep at home for the Rockies this season and their first four-game sweep since beating Arizona Sept. 18-21 at Coors Field.
But any dreams this small slice of the season might inspire comes with an admonition.
“It’s a shine of light of what could happen, but at the end of the day we haven’t done it yet,” said newly-minted all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado, who heads into the break with 70 RBIs, tied for the most in the majors. “It’s frustrating because you see how well we played today, and for this whole series. That’s how we should play.
“We pitched well and we hit well. If we just put all of that together, good things can happen. But we haven’t done it yet. Hopefully the second half we can.”
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Despite their four-game winning streak, the Rockies enter the break with a 39-49 record and are the sole tenants of the National League West basement. They are 11 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, but at least they still have a pulse.
“I think our resiliency showed up after a tough road trip,” manager Walt Weiss said, referring to a discouraging 3-7 swing through California and Arizona. “To end the first half like this, I think it proves that the guys embraced the fact that they weren’t going to take their all-star break until the last out of today’s game.”
The Rockies beat the Braves Sunday behind a solid start from right-hander Chad Bettis and production and power throughout their batting order.
Troy Tulowitzki, selected to his fifth All-Star Game, hit a three-run homer off reliever David Carpenter in the Rockies’ game-changing five-run sixth, and Drew Stubbs adding a two-run shot off Carpenter in the seventh.
Colorado center fielder Charlie Blackmon batted 3-for-5 with four RBIs, raising his average to .291.
Bettis dominated the Braves for five scoreless innings, allowing two hits and striking out seven.
“I was just throttling my fasball back and forth, mixing my velocity,” he said. “I felt like I had some of the best command of my fastball today.”
Bettis’ magic ended in the sixth when the Braves sent nine men to the plate and tied the game, 3-3. Atlanta recorded four hits in the inning, but the only hard-hit ball was Jonny Gomes’ run-scoring double to right field over the glove of Carlos Gonzalez. It’s a play CarGo could have made, but he got a poor read on the ball and never put himself in good position to make the catch.
Bettis was coming off the worst start of his career, a 2 1/3-inning disaster in which the Los Angeles Angels blasted four home runs off him. All told, he gave up 10 runs on eight hits, his ERA soaring from 3.67 to 4.95. So Sunday’s start was a step in the right direction.
“After it was all said and done, I had to delete that game against the Angels, because you can’t keep anything of worth from that. I was just eager to get back to another start, ” said Bettis, now 5-4 with a 4.91 ERA.
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Blackmon’s bases-loaded bloop single keyed the Rockies’ three-run second inning. Blackmon came to the plate having gone 1-for-17 with the bases loaded, his only other bases-loaded hit coming on Oct. 1, 2012 at Arizona.
The Rockies are off until Friday when they begin a three-game series at San Diego. Second baseman DJ LeMahieu, Arenado and Tulowitzki have been selected to participate in Tuesday night’s All-Star Game at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or
Break it down
Key numbers for the Rockies as they head into the all-star break:
.437 winning percentage (39-49), fourth-worst in National League
4.84 ERA, worst in National League
.270 batting average, second in National League
4.3 runs per game, second in National League
.984 fielding percentage, seventh in National League
