ARENADO SERVES UP 11TH-INNING HEROICS
Rockies dodge another late-game disaster thanks to Arenado’s 29th home run
MILWAUKEE» The adage in major-league baseball goes something like this: “A team will win 60 and lose 60 over the course of the 162-game marathon. It’s what it does with the other 42 that counts.”
The Rockies’ dramatic, head-spinning, 5-4 win over the Brewers in 11 innings Sunday at Miller Park was one of the 42. Actually, it was much, much bigger than that.
Allow Nolan Arenado to explain. After all, Colorado’s all-star third baseman and National League MVP candidate won the game with a solo home run on a 3-2, 98.2 mph fastball off Corey Knebel.
“It was a big win, and these games lately have been extremely stressful,” a very tired Arenado said after hitting his 29th home run of the season, tying him with St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter for the NL lead. “This road trip has been really tough on us, and we really needed to win. I was just happy to contribute, because lately I haven’t felt like I’ve done that. I would have been a really bad flight home (if we’d lost). That’s for sure.”
After a week full of late-game drama and misery, the bullpen actually did nail down a victory, with Scott Oberg shutting down Milwaukee in the 10th inning and Seunghwan Oh escaping the 11th despite giving up two singles. He induced Erik Kratz to ground into a double play to end the crazy afternoon for Oh’s first save in a Rockies uniform. Yet even the final out of the game required a replay review.
“It was a tough week, but this was a big win,” manager Bud Black. “I told the guys after the game that this is going to continue. Winning games at this time of the year can be challenging, and they come a lot of different ways, but this was a good win. I think it showed what this team is all about.”
The victory also was important because it came against the Brewers, a team Colorado is competing against for a possible NL wildcard berth. Milwaukee had won seven of its last eight vs. the Rockies. The win snapped the Rockies’ losing streak at four games, taking the some of the sting out of a tough 2-5 road trip. At 59-52, the Rockies are two games behind the Dodgers and Diamondbacks in the NL West race.
The game should not have gone into the 11th inning. In the ninth, Adam Ottavino, pitching in place of usual closer Wade Davis, should have gotten the save, but catcher Tom Murphy couldn’t handle strike three in the dirt to Kratz, and the Brewers stayed alive. They tied the game on an RBI double by .199 hitter Orlando Arcia and a second wild pitch by Ottavino that scored Kratz from third.
Lost in the madness, perhaps, was the start by Jon Gray and another sizzling performance by shortstop Trevor Story.
Gray pitched one of the best games of his career, allowing one run over eight innings, on four hits with eight strikeouts and only two walks. The only run he allowed came on Travis Shaw’s solo home run in the second. Black was tempted to let Gray go for the complete game but decided against it.
“He was right at 100 pitches, and they were getting to the meat of their order,” Black said. “I thought Jon might have emptied the tank in the eighth inning. We talked about that afterward.”
Gray, who is 3-0 over four starts with a 1.52 ERA since returning from his tuneup at Triple-A Albuquerque, agreed with his manager.
“I definitely did empty the tank in the eighth,” said Gray, who struck out Lorenzo Cain, Christian Yelich and Eric Thames in succession to end his work for the day.
Story, who drove in four of Colorado’s runs, blasted a three-run homer to left field in the fifth inning off starter Wade Miley to give the Rockies a 3-1 lead. Story recorded four RBIs against the Brewers for the fourth time this season, becoming the first player in Rockies history with four games of four or more RBIs against a single opponent in a season.
One of the game’s many turning points arrived in the sixth inning. A leadoff single by Yelich and a one-out walk by Mike Moustakas backed Gray into a corner with two dangerous hitters coming to the plate. But Gray struck out Shaw with a slicing, 3-2 slider. Then third baseman Arenado gobbled up Ryan Braun’s hot chopper, spun and fired a perfect throw to first to nip Braun for the third out. It’s a play Arenado might want to add to his career highlight reel.
“That was (special), and it saved a run, too,” Arenado said. “It’s hard to impress Bud, because he’s been around for a long time, but he even said it was one of the favorite plays he’s ever seen me make. That’s when I knew it was pretty good.”