Arenado does it again
ROCKIES 4, DIAMONDBACKS 3
Something otherworldly is falling into place when Nolan Arenado, who rarely hits triples, starts hitting them like he’s Ty Cobb. On Tuesday night at Coors Field, just as in Sunday afternoon at Coors Field, Arenado hit another triple. This one he knocked off Arizona ace Zack Greinke. And once again, Arenado played the hero.
To open a difficult six-game set against the two other best teams in the National League, the first series against a streaking Diamondbacks team, Arenado tripled in two runs off the right-field wall in the eighth inning as the Rockies again rallied, this time for a 4-3 victory.
“If I’m hitting triples, that just means the ball is getting away from the outfielder. I’m a doubles guy,” Arenado said of his ball that hit the wall and then hit off right fielder David Peralta and bounced away. “As long as they’re extra-base hits, that’s fine. I’m taking what they’re giving me.”
On Sunday, Arenado capped a rally with a walk-off home run that also gave him the cycle as Colorado came back to beat the San Francisco Giants 7-5.
“He’s doing Kobe Bryant stuff. He’s on a different level right now,” Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez said. “I’ve been there before. It’s so much fun. You just ride it out.
“It’s one of those games where maybe we didn’t deserve to win, but we kept fighting.”
The hit spoiled what had been an impressive performance by Zack Greinke, the Diamondbacks’ wily veteran control artist, a pitcher with an enviable 10-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio. He came to Denver with a perfect career record at Coors Field. Not anymore.
Arenado’s hit scored Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu and brought down chants of “MVP” from the crowd of 35,016.
Rockies manager Bud Black was confident his team would rally.
“Charlie got his helmet on. DJ got his helmet on. We were fine,” Black said. “I’m an optimist by nature. But Nolan has been swinging the bat well. Players like that usually carry it through a game.”
It’s a good start for a tough stretch of games for Colorado. Within a week, the streaking Rockies will have faced two Cy Young winners, the tallest obstacles to date in a headlong rush through the National League.
Colorado, now two games ahead of Arizona in the West, is scheduled for back-to-back series against Arizona (44-27) and at Los Angeles (45-26 before Tuesday), where the Rockies will probably face Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw.
The eighth inning was nearly Colorado’s undoing. Peralta crushed a 455-foot homer to the second deck in right field off lefty Chris Rusin to lead off the frame. Then Paul Goldschmidt followed with a first-pitch shot to right off Adam Ottavino. Within two pitches, the Diamondbacks quickly took their first lead off the game.
The Rockies scored the game’s first run in the second inning. Ian Desmond legged out an infield single to the left side, then sprinted to second base when Arizona third baseman Jake Lamb launched a throw past first base. Greinke’s wild pitch to Trevor Story pushed Desmond up another base and he scored on catcher Jeff Mathis’ throwing error.
Gonzalez, hitting 7-for-June and looking up at a slump so deep his belt was underwater, continued his success against Greinke and made it 2-0 in the fourth.
In 37 previous at-bats against Greinke, the Colorado slugger had four home runs and 13 hits. Tuesday night, on an 85-mph slider that Greinke aimed at his hands, Gonzalez launched a 449-foot home run into the trees behind center field.
After an 0-for-27 skid, Gonzalez now has a hit in four consecutive games. He also made another great defensive play, diving fully horizontal to nab Peralta’s liner toward the gap, robbing him of at least a double and an RBI.
While Rockies rookie German Marquez labored through 97 pitches over six innings, including a well-timed curveball that caught Lamb looking to end the sixth, the defense behind him played on point. Shortstop Trevor Story leaded to nab a Goldschmidt line drive in the fourth. And catcher Tony Wolters threw out Lamb trying to steal second in the sixth with a runner on third.
The Rockies improved to 36-6 this season when they score first. Arizona was 22-17 when their opposing team scored first. Colorado, though, is a June juggernaut. The Rockies are 14-4 this month, the best mark in the majors. With one tough week still to navigate, the Rox sprinted past a major hurdle.