The Colorado Rockies started their current seven-game road trip off on a winning note, defeating the Atlanta Braves, 8-4 Friday night.
Colorado’s offense carried momentum down south, manufacturing 12 hits and stringing together five doubles throughout the evening.
The Rockies are currently red hot, winning nine of their last 10 games and are just two games under .500.
Our takeaways from the win:
Follow the leader
Trevor Story and Nolan Arenado have become a production machine for the Rockies over the past few seasons and their impact was front and center Friday night.
With the Rockies trailing 1-0 in the fourth inning, Story and Arenado powered the team to a lead, blasting back-to-back solo home runs on consecutive pitches.
Where the players play. #StoryTime 📚 #NolanBeingNolan 😍 pic.twitter.com/YfnxnzZ0QC
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) April 27, 2019
The duo did not stop there.
By the time the lineup turned over in the sixth inning, the Braves had battled back to tie the game at two runs apiece.
Leading off the inning, Story roped a 1-0 pitch down the line in right field for a double. Arenado followed with a double to right field, scoring Story to put the Rockies back on top.
Daniel Murphy made it a three-of-a-kind by driving Arenado home with a double of his own. All-in-all, the Rockies collected two runs on three consecutive doubles from the heart of their lineup.
The doubles went down to Georgia. pic.twitter.com/OxLA1rL4xY
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) April 27, 2019
Story stays hot
Story’s home run in the fourth inning of the ballgame extended his active hitting streak to 14 games, which is the longest streak in the majors.
The 26-year-old shortstop’s batting average is .368 (21-for-57) over the course of the hitting streak and has hit safely in 19 of his last 21 games.
Story has always crushed when playing the Braves, owning a career .362 batting average with 26 runs scored, seven doubles, 12 home runs, 26 RBI and 12 walks against Atlanta.
The shortstop is the third player in club history with double-digit home runs versus Atlanta and is the most against a nondivision opponent for any active player on the roster.
Senzatela was good, but not great
Antonio Senzatela made his third start of the season Friday night against the Atlanta Braves.
Senzatela, 24, started his outing with a walk to Ozzie Albies who then scored when Josh Donaldson ripped a line drive to left field, establishing a 1-0 lead for the Braves.
The Rockies’ offense later rallied, scoring two runs to give Senzatlea a 2-1 lead entering the bottom half of the fourth inning.
The lead did not last long, though, as the bottom half of the fourth started with a ground-rule double off the bat of Nick Markakis. After getting Johan Camargo to ground out, Senzatela allowed a single to Tyler Flowers.
With runners on the corners and one out, Senzatela found himself down 2-0 to Ender Inciarte. The starter grooved the next pitch over the middle of the plate that Inciarte flared into shallow left field, scoring a run to tie the game at two.
The Rockies offense once again bailed out Senzatela in the sixth inning, plating two more runs to put Colorado on-top, 4-2.
Senzatela again struggled to pitch with a lead, surrendering a solo home run to Flowers after inducing a double play the at-bat before.
Manager Bud Black was not into the idea of playing with fire and decided to yank “Senza,” ending his outing with a line of 5 2/3 innings pitched, allowing three runs on seven hits while walking three batters and striking out four.