It was one of his less eventful saves of the season, and it might have been the biggest. Greg Holland worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning Friday to earn his 41st save on the season, tying the Colorado Rockies single-season record and keeping his club 1.5 games ahead in the race for the final NL Wild Card spot.
Jon Gray (9-4, 3.62) helped snap a four-game losing streak and earned his third win in four starts. The Colorado right-hander struck out eight, allowing one run on five hits and a walk.
Nolan Arenado and Ian Desmond each hit solo home runs off their former teammate, Jordan Lyles, in the fifth inning to stake Gray a 2-0 lead. Desmond would score again later in the game on a Jonathan Lucroy RBI single in the seventh, but not before Trevor Story would also leave the yard with a solo shot that same inning.
Chris Rusin had another shaky outing, allowing two hits and retiring just one batter in the seventh. (He took a walk-off loss Tuesday in San Francisco.) Bud Black turned to Pat Neshek on Friday, though, to work out of Rusin’s jam. Neshek buckled down, forcing a pop out in foul ground and striking out Manuel Margot to end the inning.
Jake McGee worked a clean eighth inning to hand the ball over to Holland. The All-Star retired the Padres in order to pick up Colorado’s 83rd win on the season.
The save, Holland’s 41st, tied him with Jose Jimenez for the single-season franchise record and kept him one ahead of L.A.’s Kenley Jansen for the NL lead.
Holland raced out to a superb start this season, earning 28 saves before the All-Star break and carrying just a 1.62 ERA over 33.1 innings pitched. While his saves often had a flair for the dramatic, he paced the league through the first half.
Since Aug. 2 Holland has stumbled a bit, going 1-5 with seven saves on ten chances. His ERA is 8.80 since then. He’s been better in September though, with a 1.13 ERA over eight appearances. He’s 1-1 with five saves so far in the final month of the season.
The win kept Colorado 1.5 games ahead of the Cardinals for the final National League Wild Card spot. St. Louis won in Pittsburgh, while the Brewers, who entered the day trailing Colorado by just one game, lost to the Cubs at home.
Colorado and San Diego play game three of their four-game series on Saturday. Chad Bettis will start for the Rockies. Bettis struggled mightily in his last start, surrendering five runs on three hits and three walks while retiring just one batter. Another former Rockie, Jhoulys Chacin, will be on the mound for San Diego. Chacin is 12-10 this season; the Padres are 1-1 against the Rockies in games he’s started.
