Rockies close out trip with a big win
ROCKIES 5, BREWERS 4 (11)
MILWAUKEE — The Colorado Rockies can finally relax on the flight home.
Nolan Arenado hit a goahead home run with two outs in the 11th inning and the Colorado Rockies beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 on Sunday thanks to an overturned replay review.
Arenado’s 29th home run of the season came off Brewers closer Corey Knebel (2-2) and helped the Rockies avoid a sweep, giving them a sigh of relief after finishing an otherwise tough Midwest trip, losing five of seven.
“These games, they’ve been extremely stressful,” Arenado said. “They’ve been tough on us. We needed to win that game.”
With Colorado closer Wade Davis struggling, the Brewers rallied for three runs in the ninth off Adam Ottavino in a save situation. Given a second chance, newly acquired reliever Seunghwan Oh closed out the Brewers in the 11th.
Scott Oberg (7-0) got the victory, allowing a hit erased by a double play in the 10th.
Nothing came easy, though.
Oh allowed a hit to Travis Shaw to lead off the 11th. After getting Ryan Braun to fly out, Jonathan Schoop singled to put men on first and second.
Erik Kratz then hit a grounder, and Schoop was forced out at second. Kratz
was initially ruled safe at first, but it took 58 seconds to overturn the call on video review, ending the game on the double play.
It was Oh’s first save since coming from Toronto in a July 26 trade.
Davis, who blew consecutive save opportunities on Thursday and Friday, could only watch Ottavino do the same in a wild ninth inning.
“He had some unfortunate happenings around him,” Rockies Manager Bud Black said.
Trailing 4-1, Mike Moustakas led off with a home run for the Brewers. After an out, Braun reached base on a catcher’s interference call, and with two outs and two strikes, Ottavino threw a wild pitch that Kratz swung at.
Kratz reached first on the swinging strikeout, and with new life, Orlando Arcia doubled to score Braun. With Kratz on third, Ottavino uncorked another wild pitch, allowing Kratz to score, tying it at 4-4 and
sending the game to extra innings.
The blown save in the ninth erased a sterling performance by Rockies starter Jon Gray.
He allowed 1 run over 8 innings, scattering 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 8, including the final three batters he faced. In his last four starts, Gray has dropped his ERA more than a full point to 4.73 by allowing just 5 runs over 292/3 innings.
Arenado saved a run in the sixth with some nifty glove work.
With runners on the corners and two outs, the third baseman snagged Braun’s chopper moving backward in the hole to his left, then spun and fired a strike to Ian Desmond at first.
“You don’t really think about it until you watch the replay,” Arenado said. “It’s hard to impress Bud because he’s been around a long time, but he even said it’s one of the greatest plays he’s ever seen from me.”
Trevor Story homered for the third consecutive game with a threerun shot off Brewers starter Wade Miley in the fifth.
Story now has 4 home runs over
his last 3 games, including 2 in Saturday night’s loss, and 24 on the season. In 7 games against the Brewers this season, he’s hit 7 home runs to go along with 18 RBI.
The Brewers claimed righthander Jordan Lyles off waivers from the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Lyles, 27, is 2-4 with a 4.29 ERA in 24 appearances, including 8 starts, this season. Brewers General Manager David Stearns said he expects to activate Lyles on Tuesday or Wednesday.