Friday night Nolan Arenado took the lead in the National League home run race with a solo shot to lead off the second inning in San Francisco. The blast was his 42nd of the year and put him one ahead of Bryce Harper for tops in the NL.
But the All-Star third baseman wasn’t done there.
The very next inning Arenado doubled home Carlos Gonzalez for his 88th extra base hit on the year, the most ever by a third baseman. Arenado passed former Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, who totaled 87 in 1999.
The RBI of Gonzalez was his 130th of the year, good for tops in all of baseball.
The Rockies went on to beat the Giants 9-3.
Colorado finishes out its season with back-to-back day games against San Francisco, while Harper and Washington will have a double-header against the Mets Saturday (Friday’s game was postponed due to weather) and close out on Sunday.
Even though Harper has a game in hand, the day schedule in San Francisco and the wet and windy weather in New York should play in Arenado’s favor as the race comes down to the final two days.
Nipping on both of their heels is Gonzalez, who sits on 40 home runs for the year.
First pitch in San Francisco is at 2:05 p.m. Saturday.
