ARENADO WALKS HIS WAY TO WIN FOR ROCKIES
Arenado takes four consecutive pitches after going 0-2
Nolan Arenado has won games with his big swing, so getting a walk-off victory with the bat sitting on his shoulder was a first. Arenado walked with the bases loaded to give the Colorado Rockies a 5-4 win over the New York Mets.
Even with the bases full, Nolan Arenado didn’t really want to walk. In fact, the all-star third baseman put a grand slam swing on the f irst pitch he saw from Mets reliever Hansel Robles and fouled it off. He fouled off the second pitch, too, and found himself down 0-2.
But Arenado, the Rockies’ MVP candidate, willed himself to accept four consecutive pitches outside the zone from Robles. The last pitch, airmailed to the backstop, forced home Jonathan Lucroy with the winning run and handed the Rockies a wild 5-4 walk-off victory Thursday afternoon at Coors Field.
“I battled back from an 0-2 count and I told myself, ‘Don’t try to get too big, all you need to do is get the ball to the outfield and we win this game,’ ” Arenado said.
Instead, Robles issued the critical free pass. Afterward, Robels complained of numbness in his right hand.
“I felt good at the beginning as the pitches started coming out. Then later on, as I kept throwing more, I didn’t feel 100 percent anymore,” he said through an interpreter. “I felt that my hand wasn’t feeling quite right. … I (felt) a little bit of numbness. I couldn’t really feel the ball.”
Arenado now has a majorleague-best 16 game-winning RBIs and leads baseball with 96 total RBIs. Asked if Thursday’s game-winner was the first walkoff walk of his entire baseball career, Arenado broke into a grin and said: “Actually, it is. You guys know I don’t walk, so this was a little different.
“Obviously, anyone would want to hit a grand slam, but I missed my pitch. That was the first one. So after that, I didn’t care anymore about driving in all the runs, I just wanted to do my job and get the win.”
The victory gave the Rockies a series win over the Mets and kept their wild-card lead over Milwaukee at 5K games.
Though unconventional, it was the sixth walk-off RBI of Arenado’s career, tying him for fourth in franchise history.
It was Arenado’s third walk-off this season (tying a franchise record), and his second in three games. His ninth-inning bloop single beat the Mets 5-4 on Tuesday night.
Colorado’s rally started with Robles plunking Lucroy, Colorado’s new catcher. Pinch-hitter Pat Valaika put down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Lucroy to second, and then the Mets intentionally walked Charlie Blackmon to get to DJ LeMahieu. But then LeMahieu walked, loading the bases for Arenado.
“Pat, in our view, is dependable,” manager Bud Black said of Valaika’s key bunt. “You ask him to do something and he’s going to do it. We have seen him execute the sacrifice bunt and other things. He has that in his game. He’s an all-around player.”
Lucroy, who went 2-for-3 in his Rockies debut, made a huge play in the eighth, throwing out Jose Reyes on a would-be steal attempt. Reyes led off with a walk off Adam Ottavino and appeared to have swiped second, but replays showed that Lucroy’s onehop throw to second baseman LeMahieu nipped Reyes. After the play, Lucroy signaled a “thank you” to LeMahieu.
“I gave him credit,” Lucroy said. “I mean, 50 percent of throwing a guy out is your middle infielder making the play. (Reyes) had a big jump and I was just trying to get it down there. It was not a good throw … but DJ made a great play. He waited for the ball to get to him and then make the tag. I have to give him credit for that.”
Colorado scored its early runs in short bursts.
Leadoff solo homers by Blackmon in the fifth and Mark Reynolds in the sixth gave Colorado 3-2 and 4-3 leads, respectively. But the Mets kept fighting back, tying the game 4-4 in the seventh on Asadrubal Cabrera’s RBI double off new Rockies reliever Pat Neshek.
Rockies right-hander German Marquez, who’s been arguably their best starter over the last month, delivered a solid performance: three runs on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks over six innings.
Closer Greg Holland (2-1) pitched a perfect ninth and earned the win.