Rockies manager Bud Black had a fresh example at hand when he said after Monday’s 4-3 walk-off victory over the Giants that every game is unique.
“That’s the beauty of this game, right? We talk about it all the time. Every game’s unique. You never know how it’s going to end up,” Black said.
A very unique bottom of the ninth inning handed the Rockies their first win in five tries Monday at Coors Field.
With the game tied at three, Charlie Blackmon led off with what looked like a routine fly ball to center field. A hazy, gusty wind blew the ball into left-center where neither Denard Span or Mac Williamson had a clean read on it. The ball bounced off Williamson’s glove and Blackmon was on base with a leadoff double.
DJ LeMahieu, one of the game’s best opposite-field hitters, then lined a ball to the right side, but too sharply to move Blackmon to third.
The Giants issued Nolan Arenado an intentional walk to set up a double play, but Steven Okert proceeded to walk Gerardo Parra on four pitches to load the bases.
Cory Gearrin relieved Okert by striking out Pat Valaika on three pitches.
He then walked in the winning run, throwing four straight pitches out of the strike zone to Carlos Gonzalez.
Unique indeed.
“But those are gratifying just because I thought we played a good game,” Black continued. “We played a complete game. We haven’t done that many times over the last couple of weeks when you think about it. We’ve had a couple good ones.”
Colorado again didn’t put up huge offensive numbers, and their productivity came primarily from Charlie Blackmon who homered and scored twice on a three-hit day, but Black’s team made some key defensive plays and got a solid pitching effort from starter Chad Bettis and the bullpen.
Ian Desmond made one of several important plays for Black, doing so in his first start at shortstop for the Rockies. Desmond has platooned at first base and in the outfield, but showed on Monday he hasn’t lost a step from his natural position.
“Ian – I told him early this morning and he was excited,” Black said about Desmond’s start at shortstop. “He had one game in [a rehab start at Triple-A] Albuquerque [at shortstop]; it’s not a lot, but it’s his natural position. He made a nice play ranging to his left, way on the right side of the diamond, made a couple other plays, so it’s an option for us.”
LeMaheiu made another big out for Colorado in the seventh inning, robbing a base hit on a sliding, spinning play. He also helped turn an inning-ending double play in the eighth with two men on.
In the ninth, closer Greg Holland nabbed a one-out screamer up the middle that knocked him flat on his back, then had the sense to get up and throw out the batter, Pablo Sandoval, at first.
Any one of those at-bats could have changed the complexion of the game, but Colorado came up big defensively.
After allowing solo home runs in the first and third innings, Bettis also came up big for Colorado. Not only did he settle down to allow just one more run over his 5.1 innings, he also drove in a run in the fourth inning to tie the game at two.
Colorado would take the lead that same inning, and although Bettis would allow San Francisco to eventually tie things up at three, Black was pleased with what he saw from his starter.
“What I saw was the velocity picked up a little as the game went on. I think he just started making better pitches,” Black said. “Both home runs were up, out over the plate. I thought that the change was in play all day. He threw some good change ups – threw a lot of them really, if you look at how it was distributed – but he battled, man.”
Black was especially impressed with his bullpen, who combined for 3.2 scoreless innings. Chris Rusin worked Bettis out of the sixth. Pat Neshek threw eight strikes on nine pitches for a clean seventh. Jake McGee worked around a pair of base hits in the eighth. And Greg Holland pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, earning a win in the process.
“These are things behind the scenes – some fundamental pitching principles that we talk about – and the guys did it today. It’s in our discussions. It’s in our playbook, and today we executed it,” Black said.
While the offense still has some improvements to make (they were just 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 baserunners), Monday’s win was the kind of unique victory the Rockies can build on down the stretch.