If the Rockies are serious about winning the National League West for the first time, they need to turn into a house of horrors for the opposition. If not every night, then at least every once in a while, just as a scary reminder.
Tuesday night, the visiting got the full shock treatment as the Rockies used a solid start from Kyle Freeland and a potent offense that included a season-high eight doubles to post an 11-4 victory. It was Colorado’s third consecutive win and it improved to 4-1 on its current nine-game homestand. Colorado is now 11-12 at home.
“We scored a bunch of runs tonight … but I don’t want to get overconfident because we have won a couple of games here,” said center fielder , who cranked out one of the team’s eight doubles and extended his hitting streak to seven games. “But we need to hit the ball here at home and give our pitchers a little breathing room. It’s important for us to be a good offense if we are going to be a good team.”
The Rockies buried any notion of a Giants comeback with a four-run seventh inning, highlighted by Ian Desmond’s RBI double, Chris Iannetta’s run-scoring single and a 420-foot, two-run, pinch-hit home run by . It was the first pinch-hit homer of Dahl’s young career.
“You never know what can happen late in the game, in a three-run game,” manager Bud Black said. “They had cut our lead to 6-3, but we kept having quality at-bats. It was very significant.”
Colorado’s once-slumbering offense, displaying encouraging signs that it’s starting to heat up throughout the order, burned Giants starter Jeff Samardzija for two runs in the first inning on a leadoff double by Charlie Blackmon, a single by , a run-scoring groundout by and a scorching RBI triple off the right-field wall by .
“We have been better, situationally, and we have done better in the last few games with runners in scoring position,” Blackmond said. “It’s a little bit different in a high-scoring game vs. a one-run ballgame. I think those situational at-bats become more important. But we’ve been hitting better up and down the lineup.”
The Rockies were 7-for-19 with men in scoring position Tuesday night after going 4-for-10 in Monday’s 6-5, 10-inning win over the Giants.
A two-out double by Freeland and sloppy Giants defense sparked the Rockies’ three-run fourth inning. Freeland scored and Blackmon ended up on third when second baseman Kelby Tomlinson botched Blackmon’s grounder and then first baseman Brandon Belt threw the ball away. Back-to-back RBI doubles by Parra and Arenado boosted Colorado’s lead to 5-0.
The Giants tumbled to 1-6 on their current road trip and were charged with a season-high four errors.
Freeland, the Rockies’ best starter at Coors Field this season, sailed through four scoreless innings, yielding only three hits. He teetered a bit in the fifth, giving up a leadoff double to Mac Williamson and a two-out, run-scoring double to reliever Derek Rodriguez, the son of Hall of Famer catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, who was making his big-league debut.
Freeland sailed straight into a storm in the sixth. Buster Posey led off with a homer to left and, two batters latter, Longoria parked another pitch to left. Both pitches came on mislocated fastballs Colorado’s lead had shrunk to 6-3. Freeland got the win, improving to 5-5 overall and 3-1 at Coors on a night when he gave up three runs on eight hits with no walks and three strikeouts. His home ERA, 1.40 entering the game, is now 2.19.
“We saw a little bit of what we have been seeing,” Black said. “Overall, I thought the fastball command was good. Maybe the slider wasn’t as sharp as we have seen it. But he had a good changeup; that’s what I like.
“The first inning he struck out Posey with a changeup, and got some other outs with a changeup. So the changeup was good, and that’s a really good sign for Kyle.”
Though Freeland gave up the two homers, it was the first time this season he didn’t walk a batter.
“I was really happy about that,” he said. “My slider was kind of hit and miss, but I liked the use of my fastball to set up the changeup. I think that kind of kept them off-balance.”
Looking ahead
Giants LHP Derek Holland (2-6, 4.73 ERA) at Rockies RHP Jon Gray (5-6, 5.40), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM; 850 AM
The Rockies have ripped Holland to the tune of a .333 team average, and that trend held up in his most recent start against Colorado on May 18 at AT&T Park, when the southpaw yielded four runs in six innings of work. Catcher Chris Iannetta has seen Holland the most of any Colorado player by far, hitting .323 (10-for-31) with six RBIs and a homer. Meanwhile, Gray was roughed up in his previous showing against the Giants on May 19 via five runs on nine hits in 3⅔ innings. The right-hander will also look to avoid early jams as he found himself in during his last start against the Reds, when Cincinnati tagged him for four runs in the first three frames before Gray settled in. — Kyle Newman, The Denver Post — Kyle Newman, The Denver Post
Thursday:ڴ
Friday: Dodgers LHP Alex Wood (1-4, 3.75 ERA) at Rockies LHP Tyler Anderson (3-1, 4.72), 6:40 p.m., ATTRM
Saturday: Dodgers RHP Walker Buehler (3-1, 2.20) at Rockies RHP German Marquez (4-5, 4.21), 5:15 p.m. ATTRM/FOX
Sunday: Dodgers RHP Brock Stewart (0-0, 4.61) at Rockies RHP Chad Bettis (4-1, 3.68), 1:10 p.m. ATTRM
