No fear.
In the eighth inning of the Rockies’ stirring, 8-6 comeback win over the Red Sox on Wednesday, rookie center fielder Cole Carrigg looped a hit to right-center, turned on the jets as he rounded first, lost his batting helmet, lost his shin guard, and tore his pants sliding into second with an RBI double.
He got the Coors Field crowd of 27,399 on its feet and buzzing.
“You know that about Cole coming in, that he’s not scared of anything,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It’s all about the mentality to compete, and he’s got it.”
But not just Carrigg. The Rockies used a cast of heroes to come back from a 6-3 deficit and score three runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to win the game and capture the three-game series.
Colorado won its eighth series of the season. During last year’s 119-loss fiasco, the Rockies won just two series before the All-Star Game and eight series the entire season.
Carrigg, who extended his on-base streak to nine games, drove in three runs. Across the first 14 games of his career, he’s slashing .271/.379/.542 with a .921 OPS, three home runs, two doubles, and 11 RBIs.
The confident Carrigg has been undaunted by big-league pressure.
“I think it goes, ultimately, to just competing,” he said. “I’ve played baseball to compete my whole life, and I believe what it takes to play here and play well here.”
Colorado’s comeback began in the seventh when catcher Hunter Goodman reached on a two-out error by shortstop Andruw Monasterio. Enter Carrigg, who blooped an RBI single to left, followed by Jake McCarthy’s single through the right side of the infield.
Left-handed hitting Troy Johnson tied the game, 6-6, with a pinch-hit single against lefty reliever Danny Coulombe.
“With Troy coming off the bench like that, left on left, and coming through, was huge,” Schaeffer said.
Colorado used more team baseball in the ninth to win the game. Mickey Moniak led off with a pinch-hit single, followed by another single by Willi Castro. Tyler’s safety-squeeze bunt pushed across Moniak for the go-ahead run, and Carrigg’s double finished off the comeback.
“I think any manager wants that,” Schaeffer said when asked about the team baseball. “Our boys just never quit. We know that when the seventh inning rolls around, and we are down, something is bound to happen — with us. We just feel it every (game) and we showed it the whole homestand.”
The Rockies went 4-2 on the homestand against the Pirates and the Red Sox, winning three games by one run.
“The guys, especially the young guys, are learning that we play 27 outs for a reason and you can’t take any out for granted,” veteran starter Kyle Freeland said after he endured a tough day at the ballpark. “When you get in a situation with runners on, late in the game, you want to be that guy, standing in the box and getting the big hit. Guys are learning that, and they want to be part of those big spots.”
Freeland, however, continues to ride a teeter-totter. And the Rockies’ starting pitching continues to be the club’s Achilles’ heel. Colorado has a 5.92 starter’s ERA.
In his last outing, Freeland pitched a gem, going 7 1/3 innings and giving up two runs on four hits.
But the BoSox battered him for six runs on 11 hits in six innings on Wednesday. Connor Wong hit a two-run homer to left in the second inning, and Andruw Monasterio hit a one-out solo shot in the fourth. Freeland, who’s in the final year of his contract, has a 7.50 ERA, the highest in the majors (minimum 50 innings pitched).
But Schaeffer commended Freeland for keeping Colorado in the game.
“Honestly, that’s the name of the game here at Coors — to hang with it, and stick with it when things don’t go your way,” Schaeffer said. ” ‘Free’ competed today, I thought. They hit a lot of balls hard, and he attacked the strike zone.
“He had some things that didn’t go his way, for sure, but at the end of the day, he gave us six innings, and we were still in the ballgame. You can pretty much count on ‘Free’ to do that every time out.”
Pitching probables
Thursday: Off day
Friday: Rockies RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (8-4, 4.31) at Twins TBA, 6:10 p.m.
Saturday: Rockies RHP Michael Lorenzen (2-9, 7.11) at Twins TBA, 5:10 p.m.
Sunday: Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (2-2, 4.79) at Twins TBA, 12:10 p.m.
TV: Rockies.TV
Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM
