BIG BATS HELP ROCKIES ROLL PAST PHILLIES
In the pressure of the f inal week of a pennant race, the Rockies played well enough Monday night to take a long, slow, breath. ¶ Colorado opened its f inal homestand by cruising to a 101 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies, its fourth straight win, as Jon Gray turned in seven frames of onerun ball and the offense burst out for tacos by the fourth inning of the blowout.
Gray overcame basesloaded, firstinning dramatics to finish with seven strikeouts in his first quality start since Sept. 1. And the Rockies’ bats battered Philadelphia righthander Zach Eflin for five runs in twoplus innings before furthering the damage against an array of visiting relievers.
Gray’s success was a matter of a renewed focused on the tempo of his delivery as well as not nibbling around the strike zone in a game where his fastball velocity returned to its normal form (95.0 mph average) after lag ging for several games prior.
“I was more of myself tonight because I was aggressive and attacking the zone, and that’s where I need to be,” Gray said. “(The first inning) was the best part of the game for me, just getting out of there early, because that’s what I struggle with a lot. To be in that tight situation and get out felt good, and I think that probably had a lot to do with (my pitching) the rest of the game.”
The Rockies initially got on the
board with Nolan Arenado’s oneout, RBI single to score Charlie Blackmon in the third. That started the inning’s damage innocuously enough before Colorado proceeded to plate four additional runs while chasing Eflin from the game.
That scoring came via Gerardo Parra’s RBI single, and then three additional gifted runs by way of a pair of basesloaded walks as well as a wild pitch that brought another run in to make it 50 as Colorado batted around.
“We strung some atbats together,” manager Bud Black said. “In the third inning, we had some really good atbats, and took some pitches that were borderline balls that we didn’t chase.”
Then, Colorado broke the game open further against rookie right hander Yacksel Rios in the fourth.
After DJ LeMahieu, probably playing his final days, or weeks, in a Rockies uniform, drew a businesslike walk to open the frame, David Dahl blasted his 11th home run of the season to open the advantage to 70.
“We just have to keep this momentum rolling into tomorrow now,” Dahl said.
Story’s second double of the game, and another Parra RBI knock, pushed it to 80 before two errors on one Ian Desmond groundball in the sixth inning made it 90 and took all the pressure off the Rockies’ pitching staff.
The double was also the latest historic footnote in Story’s season, as it gave him 80 extrabase hits for the season. He became the fourth shortstop to hit the mark, joining Jimmy Rollins, Hanley Ramirez and Ernie Banks (three times).
“He had two really good swings — those (doubles) to center were bullets — and he turned a couple double plays and felt nothing with the elbow,” Black said. “He was fundamentally sound with the throwing mechanics, too, which was great . ... He came out of a nineinning game fine, which is a confidence booster.”
After Gray exited, his lone blemish being Rhys Hoskins’ 444foot solo home run in the sixth inning, some of the lesscalledupon names in the Colorado bullpen held the lead to preserve to unit’s top arms, especially considering both Adam Ottavino and Wade Davis were unavailable because of necessary rest days.
Gray’s length also was important considering Colorado will likely have to lean heavily on its bullpen on Tuesday, with starter Chad Bettis only slated to go about 50 pitches maximum.
“That was big for Jon to give us seven innings, especially with Wade and Otto down today,” Black said. “Now (Seunghwan) Oh’s still fresh, (Scott) Oberg’s fresh, (Chris) Rusin’s fresh, (Jake) McGee’s fresh.”
Harrison Musgrave worked around a oneout triple in the eighth inning, and DJ Johnson, the closer for TripleA Albuquerque this season, finished out in the ninth.
The victory puts surging Colorado (8670) a seasonhigh tying 16 games above .500 and 4828 since June 28th, the best mark in the NL over that time span.
Entering the night, Colorado was down a game and a half to the Dodgers in the NL West race and the same amount to the Cardinals for the second wild card.
But the Brewers won 64 in St. Louis, drawing Colorado even with the Cardinals in the loss column, and half a game behind in the standings. Los Angeles played late at Arizona.