Mullet flying, beard bobbing, made the catch of his career Tuesday night at in the Rockies’ wild, crazy and richly satisfying 5-4 walk-off victory over the .
The Rockies’ all-star center fielder turned, raced down Asdrubal Cabrera’s 415-foot blast, made the catch and crashed into the wall to seal the Mets’ final out of the ninth inning. Blackmon was serenaded with a standing ovation as he jogged back to the dugout.
Naturally, a gassed Blackmon led off the ninth by drawing a well-earned walk off hard-throwing reliever Hansel Robles. Blackmon advanced to second on ‘s sizzling infield grounder off rookie shortstop Amed Rosario, who was making his major-league debut. Blackmon then slid home on ‘s RBI single to left-center for the game-winner. It was the fifth walk-off hit of Arenado’s career and second this season.
“I felt like we were supposed to win today, I can’t explain it,” Blackmon said.
Arenado, whose 95 RBIs leads the majors, loves being the man at the plate, in the clutch.
“I want those at-bat,” said Arenado, who’s batting .397 (25-for-63) with seven home runs and 25 RBIs since the all-star break. “To be honest with you, I like those big at-bats. I don’t like failing in them, but I don’t mind it. I feel as comfortable as you can be in those moments.”
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But Arenado, true to his nature, was more eager to talk about Blackmon’s catch.
“That was a huge for us,” Arenado said. “It was a big momentum-shifter for us, to see Charlie make that play. That was a great catch.”
For the record, no, Blackmon did not think Cabrera’s ball was going to leave the yard. And yes, he was aware of his impending collision with the center-field wall.
“You don’t want to hurt yourself … but you don’t be wall shy,” he said.
Tuesday produced one of the most entertaining games of the season, and a festive crowd of 36,698 looked on as Arenado also launched a three-run homer and drove in four runs, and rookie right-hander produced a quality start.
“Man, I was proud of Jeff Hoffman; how he hung tough when he had runners in scoring position,” manager Bud Black said. “We fought back and took the lead. The guys in the pen sort of got nicked a little bit, but we came back.
“It was a momentum-swinging game all the way through and in the end we had some good at-bats.”
No doubt this one was a roller-coaster ride, but the Rockies’ victory kept them 5½ games in front of Milwaukee for the National League’s second wild-card spot.
Jay Bruce’s solo homer off reliever ‘s hanging slider had given the Mets a short-lived 4-3 lead in the eighth. But Carlos Gonzalez’s 48 mph “screamer” tied the game 4-4 in the bottom of the frame. He dribbled the ball down the third-base line to score , who had opened the inning with a single.
Gonzalez’s hit may have been coaxed by the benevolent baseball gods, but it’s still goes into the box score as an RBI single. His power has not returned, but he does have a 10-game hitting streak, raising his average to .228.
The Rockies’ offense was dormant until the sixth inning. Blackmon opened the barrage with a single off starter Steven Matz, followed by a loud double to left by LeMahieu. The explosion came from Arenado, who blasted his three-run, opposite-field homer into Colorado’s bullpen for a 3-2 Rockies lead.
New York tied the game 3-3 in the seventh off newly acquired reliever Pat Neshek, who was making his Coors Field debut in a Rockies uniform. Neshek should have fared better. He struck out , but the ball got away from catcher Ryan Hanigan and Reyes reached first. Reyes advanced to third on a bloop double by Conforto and scored an unearned run on Asdrubal Cabrera’s sacrifice fly.
Hoffman overcame a first-inning hiccup to pitch six solid innings, yielding two earned runs on five hits, with three walks and five strikeouts.
“The plan going in was to hammer them with the fastball, and we kept doing that because I felt like I had good command with it,” Hoffman said. “And we threw in some changeups, too. That’s a pitch I’ve been working with the last few weeks and I’m starting to feel more comfortable with it.”
Jonthan Lucroy, acquired Sunday in a trade with Texas, was supposed to start his first game as a Rockie, but he got sick to his stomach after batting practice and was a late scratch. Ryan Hanigan got the start instead.
“We had game-planned it with Lucroy, expecting him to come in and catch,” Hoffman said. “But when we found out he was scratched, I told Hanigan, ‘We are going to throw a lot of changeups tonight, because it feels good and we feel like they will be geared up for fastball, so anything that looks like a fastball will be good to get them out.”
The Rockies pulverized Matz when they faced him July 16 at Citi Field, pounding out seven runs on nine hits in the first inning en route to a 13-4 Colorado victory. It was the shortest out of Matz’s career.
But Matz owned the Rockies until their breakout sixth. Indeed, Colorado didn’t notch its first hit until beat out an infield single with one out in the fifth. Hanigan advanced him to third on a clean single to left, but Hoffman couldn’t deliver, grounding out to Matz.
The Mets struck first, and quickly. Michael Conforto led off the game with a walk and scored on Yoenis Cespedes’ laser-shot double to left. At that point, it looked as if it might be a short start for Hoffman, but he regrouped and put the Rockies in position to win.
Postgame Notes of Note
- The Rockies won in walk-off fashion for the third time this season (June 18 and June 15 vs. San Francisco).
- The Rockies improved to 32-19 at Coors Field and are 8-2 in their last 10 home games.
- Nolan Arenado is batting .429 (18-for-22) in his last nine games at Coors Field, with seven home runs and 24 RBIs.
- Charlie Blackmon is batting .409 (27-for-66) over 16 games since the all-star break and is slashing .403/.468/.827 in 49 games at Coors Field this season.
- Carlos Gonzalez tied the game with an RBI infield single in bottom of the eighth inning, his first RBI of the season in a “close and
late” situation. - The Mets lost via a walk-off for the seventh time this season.
- The Mets have lost five of their last six games on their current 10-game road trip after beginning the trip with two wins at San Diego.
- Jay Bruce hit his 28th home run of the season in the eighth inning, his 14th go-ahead home run of the season, tied for the second most in the majors.
- Yoenis Cespedes went 2-for-4 with one RBI. In eight career games at Coors Field, he’s batting .387 (12-for-31) with three doubles, four home runs and 10 RBIs.
- Amed Rosario made his big-league debut and recorded his first hit with an infield single off reliever Scott Oberg in the eighth.
