From start to finish, Colorado Rockies pitcher Chad Bettis shined in his first start back from battling testicular cancer not once, but twice. The first batter for the Atlanta Braves that he faced on Monday night couldn’t have been a more perfect metaphor for what Bettis has faced since he last took the mound for the Rockies 10 1/2 months ago.
“It went from being incredibly high to, ‘Oh no, we’re about to be down 1-0,'” Bettis said after the game – a 3-0 Rockies victory.
In sparring with Atlanta’s dangerous leadoff hitter, Ender Inciarte, Bettis got ahead in the count early, 0-2. After fouling off a pair of pitches, Inciarte sent a ball down the left field line, which a sliding Gerardo Parra failed to catch.
Speeding around second and towards third, Inciarte got greedy and ran home, looking for that little league home run. Fate and the Rockies had a different plan. Parra corralled the ball off the left field wall and fired it to Trevor Story, who in turn shot the ball to Jonathan Lucroy at home. Lucroy’s tag just beat the sliding Inciarte. Out at home.
“I’ve never had a problem with guys trying to lay off the balls or showing their effort out there [in the outfield],” Bettis said. “Parra tried to make a spectacular play and ended up still making a spectacular play. Seeing guys give their 100 percent effort for me is all I ask for.”
Much like that AB, Bettis’ career in the past year has gone from a high (leading the Rockies in wins and innings pitched in 2016), to a seemingly devastating low (being diagnosed with cancer), only to have his teammates (doctors, family, friends and actual teammates) rally around him to help get the out at home (beating cancer twice).
After pitching seven scoreless innings, during which Bettis only gave up six hits and struck out two batters with no walks in 90 pitches (63 strikes), AT&T Sports Network’s Drew Goodman said it best:
“It was a win for Chad Bettis. He could not lose tonight.”
“That was outstanding,” manager Bud Black said of Bettis’ performance. “Once the game started, I was just sort of feeding off Chad and he was pitching! For him, this was a baseball game that he wanted to perform and pitch well for the Rockies. He pitched great.”
Once his night on the mound was officially through, Bettis was met with hugs and plenty of emotion in the dugout, from both his teammates and manager.
“We talked baseball, really,” Black said. “We just sort of looked at each other and we were both a little emotional. That was sort of it. I sort of wanted him to enjoy what was going on in that moment.”
The night was undoubtedly emotional for Bettis, who, after thinking he had beaten cancer heading into spring training, found out he had relapsed. This start for him was a long time coming.
“[The emotion] crept in this morning when I woke up, just thinking about everything that had happened and thinking about everything that my family and I had been through, I was holding back tears until the start [of the game],” Bettis said.
Last season, in 189 innings pitched, the 28-year-old earned 14 wins to eight losses with a 4.79 ERA; he allowed 99 earned runs, 59 walks and recorded 138 strikeouts, setting career-high marks in starts, innings and strikeouts.
In the other dugout on Monday night, Atlanta’s Julio Teheran gave Bettis the pitching duel he deserved in his 2017 Rockies debut, throwing a terrific game of his own. Teheran finished the night with seven scoreless innings, four hits, three walks and eight strikeouts.
“It was fun,” Bettis said of the pitchers’ duel. “We got the win and I think that’s all that really matters at the end of the day. We’ve got to keep moving forward. We’re in a playoff push and we got to keep going.”
In the eighth inning, with the scoreboard growing lonely after seeing far too many zeros, the Rockies decided to give it some love. Dansby Swanson helped.
With Charlie Blackmon on third following a leadoff triple and an intentional walk to DJ LeMahieu, Parra hit a chopper to Braves’ shortstop Danby Swanson, who whiffed on what appeared to be a playable ball, allowing Blackmon to score. While initially called an error, the scorers changed the ruling, giving Parra the base hit and the RBI.
After Mark Reynolds walked in the next at-bat, Carlos Gonzalez added his name to the box score as he drove in two more runs to put the Rockies up 3-0 heading into the top of the ninth.
Greg Holland allowed a hit and a walk, but no damage in the ninth to earn his 35th save.
The Rockies walked away with a 3-0 win, but with Bettis back on the mound now for the foreseeable future, they won much more than the game on Monday night.
“I don’t know how many pitches I ended up with, but I feel like I easily could have gone 15 to 20 more,” Bettis said. “I feel strong, and I think that was kind of the whole game plan moving forward, was to get in here with a fresh arm and be fresh through the finish of the season and in the playoffs.”
Bettis certainly was strong on Monday night – in a number of ways- from start to finish.