Ryan McMahon’s RBI single in eighth inning completes rally.
On a night when the home run ruled, it was a bit of luck, hustle and a single that got the job done for the Rockies in a 6-5 comeback victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday at Coors Field.
With the game tied 5-5 in the eighth inning, Daniel Murphy’s sharp grounder down the firstbase line appeared destined for the glove of a diving Anthony Rizzo. But the ball hit the bag and careened into the outfield for a double instead. Murphy then had his first steal of the season and scored on Ryan McMahon’s two-out RBI single.
McMahon’s timely hit got German Marquez off the hook for an early four-run deficit and gave Colorado its ninth straight home victory following a disappointing 2-4 road trip.
Right-handers Marquez and Yu Darvish each breezed through the first two innings with relative ease. But the third inning was sideways on both sides from the very first batter.
Longmont native and former Colorado high school star David Bote crushed a solo homer 410 feet to right off German Marquez to lead off the inning. Then Kyle Schwarber made it back-to-back homers the next pitch, and the Cubs led 2-0 as the predominately blue-clad crowd roared.
Marquez then continued to derail as a walk to Kris Bryant set up Anthony Rizzo’s towering tworun homer to center field, and just like that Colorado trailed 4-0.
But the Rockies struck right back off Darvish in the bottom of the frame, using two-run homers by Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado to square the game at 4-4. Blackmon’s homer was a seconddeck shot to right to bring around Tony Wolters, while Arenado recorded his Nos. 56 and 57 RBIs of the season on his homer to left.
Ian Desmond then appeared to have struck the decisive blow with his one-out homer in the seventh inning that went 486 feet, the longest dinger in the majors this season. Kyle Schwarber stood like a stone in left field as Desmond admired his handiwork from the box off a hanging 1-2 Mike Montgomery curveball, the ball so far over Schwarber’s head that the Cubs outfielder hardly even bothered to turn and see where it landed.
Chicago then came back with a run off Scott Oberg in the eighth, via Javier Baez’s RBI grounder, before McMahon’s game-winning hit in the bottom of the frame. Wade Davis recorded his eighth save and first since coming off the injured list.