There have been plenty of late-inning tear jerkers for the Rockies this season. Friday night at Coors Field, they enjoyed a late-night laugher.
Powered by the first grand slam of catcher Nick Hundley’s career, the Rockies scored seven runs with two outs in the eighth inning to beat Arizona 14-7. Colorado improved to 3-1 on the current homestand and made amends for a ninth-inning loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday night.
“We’ve done that a lot this year,” manager Walt Weiss said, “had our heart ripped out and bounced right back and had a big night.”
The Rockies’ beleaguered bullpen came through with Carlos Estevez throwing a one-two-three eighth and closer Adam Ottavino following suit in the ninth.
Colorado’s winning rally began when reliever Enrique Burgos hit Charlie Blackmon with two outs. Blackmon stole second base for the 100 theft of his career and then DJ LeMahieu drew a walk. Up stepped Nolan Arenado, who calmly drilled a 2-1, 96 mph fastball into left for the go-ahead run and his major-league best 117th RBI of the season. Arenado became the first Rockies player to drive in 100 runs and score 100 runs since Carlos Gonzalez in 2010.
“First of all, I prayed before that (at-bat) … just give me strength,” Arenado said. “I wanted that at-bat and when (Burgos) threw two sliders in the dirt, I thought a fastball might be coming.”
After Arenado’s clutch delivery, Colorado’s rally got plain silly against Arizona’s awful bullpen. Colorado’s final run came on a solo homer to left by Daniel Descalso, his fourth of the season.
“I was looking to drive the ball,” said Hundley, who hit his bomb off of Silvino Bracho. “Anytime you get a mistake like that you don’t want to miss it. I told (rookie Stephen) Cardullo he’s been in the league (a week) and he’s got more grand slams than me. I couldn’t let that happen.”
This was a topsy-turvy affair.
After being held to one hit in the first four innings, Colorado’s offense awoke in the fifth to take a short-lived 6-5 lead. The Rockies sent 10 batters to the plate, scored six runs on seven hits and chased starter Robbie Ray from the game. Cristhian Adames, Blackmon (two), Arenado and Gonzalez all collected RBIs. A sloppy throwing error by Arizona right-fielder Yasmany Tomas scored another run.
Arizona regained the lead in the sixth on a two-run homer by A.J. Pollock off reliever Jordan Lyles, Pollocks’ first homer of the season since coming off the disabled list. Colorado tied it 7-7 in the bottom of the frame, with September call-up Raimel Tapia getting his first big-league hit and scoring on rookie David Dahl’s single.
Rockies veteran left-hander Jorge De La Rosa’s off night was illustrated by his body language in the Diamondbacks’ four-run fourth. After surrendering opening singles to Brandon Drury and Chris Owings, he fielded pitcher Robbie Ray’s sacrifice bunt in front of the mound. Instead of throwing out Ray, he threw the ball past first baseman Stephen Cardullo for a two-run, two-base error. De La Rosa, fully aware of his goof, could only hang his head.
De La Rosa’s error opened the flood gates. An RBI double by Paul Goldschmidt and run-scoring single by Welington Castillo put Colorado in a 5-0 hole. De La Rosa worked one more scoreless inning, but his numbers were not pretty: five innings, seven hits, five runs (none of them earned) and four walks (one intentional).
It was a rare poor performance from De La Rosa vs. Arizona in LoDo. He entered the game 9-1 with a 1.94 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) against them at Coors.
Late-night notes of note
- The homers by Hundley and Descalso marked the 11th time this season the Rockies have hit back-to-back homers.
- The Rockies scoring seven runs in the eighth inning after their first two batters were retired made history. It was the first time that the Rockies had ever scored as many as seven runs following their first two batters recording outs. What’s more, it was the first time it happened in the majors since the New York Mets scored seven runs following their first two batters recording outs on June 28, 2011 at Detroit (fourth inning).
- DJ LeMahieu extended his on-base streak to a career-high tying 19 games (also: July 3-28, 2015). He is batting .423 (33-for-78) with 20 runs, four doubles, two triples, three home runs, 13 RBI, 12 walks and a .505 OBP over that span.
- Catcher Tom Murphy made his first appearance with the Rockies this season as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning and recorded a single.
- Rockies killer Paul Goldschmidt went 1-for-5 for the D-Backs and has now reached base in a club record 49 games against the Rockies. That is the all-time longest streak against the Rockies for any player (previous: 48, Mike Piazza, July 1, 1998-September 13, 1999). Goldschmidt’s is the longest active streak in the majors against any opponent.
