HOMERS HELP ROCKIES BREAK LOSING STREAK
ROCKIES 9, REDS 6 A vintage CarGo show rolled into Great American Ball Park on Tuesday night as the Rockies beat the Reds 9-6.
Carlos Gonzalez opened his act in the fourth inning with a laser throw from right field to nail Tucker Barnhart trying to stretch a single into a double. But CarGo was just getting warmed up.
In the seventh, Gonzalez launched a three-run homer into the stratosphere off reliever Wandy Peralta. When the ball landed near the faux steamboat beyond the wall in right-center, it had traveled 473 feet, according to Statcast. That fell 3 feet short of Gonzalez’s 476-foot homer here off Pedro Villarreal on June 5, 2013, five years earlier to the day.
“Tonight was a good night. June 5,” Gonzalez said. “Don’t forget that. Remind me every year and remind the manager that I have to play on June 5.”
There was a dark cloud to the victory. Right-handed reliever Bryan Shaw, who signed a three-year, $27 million deal, continues to struggle mightily. He gave up three runs on five hits in the ninth inning, turning a Colorado cruise into a nail-biter. Closer Wade Davis had to come to the rescue and get a one-out save by striking out Scott Schebler. It was Davis’ 19th save.
Rockies manager Bud Black indicated Shaw’s struggles are about bad location.
“Two hits were hit extremely soft down the left-field line,” Black said. “Not hard hits, but they are hits. That’s baseball.
Things definitely aren’t going his way, for sure. But there are some things we are working on internally with mechanics and pitch selection that I would rather not say publicly.”
As the weather has heated up, so has Gonzalez, who batted 3for-5 on Tuesday night. Over the past eight games, he’s batting .438 (14-for-32).
Gonzalez’s blow tied for the 16th-longest homer in Great American’s history. The longest homer ever at the GAP was clubbed by Cincinnati’s Adam Dunn on Aug. 10, 2004, off the Dodgers’ Jose Lima. According the Reds’ media relations department, Dunn’s homer “cleared the batter’s eye, bounced onto Mehring Way and came to rest on a piece of driftwood in the Ohio River.”
Gonzalez’s theatrics overshadowed a number of plus performances by the Rockies, who snapped a season-high four-game losing streak. Start with pitcher Kyle Freeland, who allowed three runs on nine hits over 6M innings. He cruised until the seventh in- ning before his command faltered and Cincy ripped him for two runs on three hits and a walk. Freeland also gave up a long solo homer to Schebler in the fifth.
Gonzalez’s assist in the fourth wasn’t Colorado’s only defensive gem. Trevor Story made a great catch and throw from shortstop in the first to nail Barnhart, and left fielder Gerardo Parra threw out Jesse Winkler at the plate to end the seventh.
Reds right-hander Anthony DeSclafani, making his first bigleague start since Sept. 28, 2016, received a rude reception. DJ LeMahieu led off with a single up the middle and scored on Charlie Blackmon’s triple down the firstbase line that right fielder Jesse Winkler struggled to corral. The lead grew to 2-0 on Gonzalez’s infield chopper into no-man’s land that scored Blackmon.
Chris Iannetta’s two-run homer in the second scored Ian Desmond, who had led off with a single. The 4-0 cushion gave Freeland a nice safety net.