ROX SCORE 10 RUNS
Colorado stays hot vs. Seattle
During their June gloom, the Rockies seemed to invent ways to lose. During their joyful July, they’re finding ways to win.
Case in point, their 10-7 victory over Seattle on a perfect Friday night at Coors Field in front of a festive summer crowd of 38,126 fans. It was the Rockies’ 11th win in their last 14 games, and they are very much alive in the race for the National League West title as the allstar break looms. They were 2½ games behind the Dodgers, pending the Dodgers’ West Coast game against the Angels.
Although scheduled starter Antonio Senzatela was scratched Friday afternoon, and although the middle of Colorado’s bullpen came close to collapsing, Colorado’s bats took care of business. As did lategame relievers Adam Ottavino, who pitched a one-two-three eighth with two strikeouts, and closer Wade Davis, who tossed a perfect ninth for his 26th save.
Newly minted all-star shortstop Trevor Story, as they supposedly used to say in his native Texas, “is hot as a billy goat in a pepper patch.” Translation: He went 2for-5 on Friday with a two-run homer and a two-run double, raising his average to .291. Story is batting .425 (17-for-40) in July and has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games. His 67 RBIs lead the team.
The Rockies also got a solo homer from Charlie Blackmon in the first inning off Seattle spot starter Christian Bergman, the former Rockie. Carlos Gonzalez batted 3for-3 with a double, reached base all five times and is now hitting .284.
Four Rockies — Nolan Arenado, Ian Desmond, Blackmon and Story — have hit at least 18 home runs this season, the most in franchise history prior to the all-star break. The last team to accomplish the feat was the 2009 Philadelphia Phillies.
The Rockies’ four-run fifth inning featured RBI singles by Gerardo Parra, Desmond and Tony Wolters, who knocked in two with his rap to right field.
Right-hander Jeff Hoffman, called up from Triple-A Albuquerque to make an emergency start in place of Senzatela — out with a blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand — gave the Rockies 3L uneven innings. He was charged with three runs on eight hits.
Hoffman had a rocky start and a rough ending. The Mariners scored two runs in the first on consecutive singles by Dee Gordon, Jean Segura and Mitch Haniger, and Hoffman’s throwing error to first base on a pickoff attempt compounded the damage. In the fourth, Seattle’s Chris Herrmann banged out a triple to center and scored on a single up the middle by Bergman.