Charlie Blackmon blasted his first career walk-off home run Wednesday night at Coors Field, besting the reigning world champion Houston Astros 3-2 in a late-July game that had all the feel of October.
“It was a pretty good atmosphere tonight (even though) there were a few more Broncos fans than I would’ve liked to see,” Blackmon joked of the Houston supporters. “But it was fun — it felt like everybody in the crowd was into it, and we played hard all the way.”
Colorado tied the game on Nolan Arenado’s unconventional popout RBI with the bases loaded in the seventh, in which Houston’s J.D. Davis made a web-gem grab leaning over — and almost falling into — the Astros’ dugout. Speedster Raimel Tapia tagged from third base on the play, scoring on an errant throw by Davis to make it 2-2.
Carlos Gonzalez got the Rockies rolling in the first — and had the purple-clad fans drowning out another strong showing by a large contingent of orange — with his 12th home run of the season, 417 feet to right off Charlie Morton for a 1-0 home-team lead.
“(Morton) was throwing cheese all over the place — 98 with a really good spinning curveball, so I was just ready to attack in that first at-bat,” Gonzalez said. “I got to a hitter’s count, 2-0, and he threw me a 97 fastball middle-in that I was able to turn on.”
Meanwhile Jon Gray, recalled July 14 from a tuneup stint in Triple-A Albuquerque, turned in a second straight quality start after his midseason demotion. He finished with one earned run off one hit, two walks and six strikeouts.
“I kicked everything backed to the basics, and started throwing the way I can,” Gray said. “I was attacking the zone and filled it up with strikes, even though I wish I threw more strikes toward the end of the game.”
The right-hander lived down in the zone with his fastball and was consistent with his offspeed pitches through the first three innings, retiring the initial nine Houston hitters he faced. Adversity reared itself in the fourth inning, though, when the Astros tagged Gray for two runs on a walk, a hit and two errors.
Those misplays — one on a botched groundball to Ian Desmond down the first-base line, and another on a catcher’s interference call on Tom Murphy — gave the Rockies’ two errors in consecutive games for the first time this season.
But Gray overcame the mistakes for one of his best starts of 2018 against an aggressive Astros’ offense.
“They’re an attacking club — they come out swinging — and Jon came out and attacked them right back and made pitches,” manager Bud Black said. “He had good use of the curveball at times, and a good three-pitch mix with the fastball, slider and curve.”
Though Colorado didn’t benefit from its usual elite defensive play (its .989 fielding percentage ranks second in the NL) against the Astros, it did get two call reversals on replay reviews that kept Gray’s premium outing afloat.
First, Alex Bregman’s leadoff triple in the sixth for Houston was ruled fan interference — and therefore an out — after a fan with an orange Astros jersey leaned over the left-field rail and deflected the ball that was being tracked by Gerardo Parra.
Gray used that out to settle into a one-two-three inning, and then benefited from an overturned call on Kyle Tucker’s attempted steal at second base to put an end to Houston’s quiet seventh. The 26-year-old Gray was then spelled by Adam Ottavino in the eighth inning, and Wade Davis held the Astros scoreless in the ninth to earn the win, thanks to Blackmon’s home run in the bottom half.
