Rockies are having a blast
ROCKIES 8, NATIONALS 4 Blackmon’s home run helps Colorado improve to 14-6
Charlie Blackmon, who’s come to resemble Paul Bunyan, albeit with an ’80s-style mullet, is building a nice legend for himself in LoDo.
The Rockies’ center fielder crushed a two-run, seventh-inning homer into the second deck above right field Monday night, propelling his team to an 8-4 win over Washington.
Blackmon’s 417-foot drive off left-handed reliever Enny Romero, his sixth, put Colorado in front 5-4. The Rockies tagged on three more runs in the eighth on five consecutive singles and an RBI groundout by Blackmon to ice the game.
“Right when he hit the homer, the dugout, collectively, just let out a huge ‘yeah!’ ” manager Bud Black said. “Just a huge one. It was a great. A great swing. He squared it up.”
Blackmon, sluggish to open the season, has batted 6-for-16 over his last four games, with three homers, two triples and nine RBIs.
The Rockies improved to 14-6, tied for their second-best record after 20 games in franchise history. Colorado opened 15-5 in 1997 and 14-6 in 2011.
The powerful Nationals (13-6) saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end.
A home run pose told the story of Colorado starter Tyler Anderson’s night. The lefthander bent over, his hands on his hips, revealing a small moment of anguish after Ryan Zimmerman’s two-run homer sneaked over the center-field wall to give the Nationals a 4-1 lead in the sixth.
The Nationals, who barely touched Anderson for the first five innings, finally figured him out in their four-run sixth. They hit for the cycle, beginning with a one-out double by Trea Turner, an RBI triple by Adam Eaton and an RBI single by Anthony Rendon.
Anderson was in complete command until that fatal sixth inning. He struck out five and walked only one and was baffling the Nationals’ hitters with well-located fastballs and an effective changeup.
“His changeup was beautiful,” catcher Tony Wolters said. “That’s his changeup. It’s back. His tempo out there, his confidence, it was there. So I am proud of him. He just needs to execute a few more pitches.”
Said Anderson: “I just wanted to mix pitches a lot and keep guys off balance. I did some good things tonight, except for that sixth inning when they hit some mistakes. The most important thing is we came away with a win. That hadn’t happened my last three starts.”
The Rockies cut Washington’s lead to 4-3 in the bottom half of the sixth, utilizing their best earlyseason, one-two punch.
Nolan Arenado chugged out a triple to center and scored on Mark Reynolds’ homer to left off starter Jacob Turner. It was Reynolds’ sixth homer and team-leading 18th RBI.
The Rockies eked out a run in the second off Turner. Carlos Gonzalez’s single off the glove of second baseman Daniel Murphy started the mini-rally, followed by a two-out bloop single to left by Trevor Story and a single by Wolters to score Gonzalez.
It was a terrific piece of hitting by Wolters, who worked a full count off Turner and then steered the ball the opposite way to left field. Wolters is hitting .351 in the early going.