No, that headline is not a typo.
Ian Desmond has struggled mightily all season long, so much so, his $22 million paycheck this year seems like a massive waste of money. But, Desmond and his third-worst in the NL .167 batting average coming into the game pushed the Rockies to their 6-1 win by hitting in the first four runs.
San Francisco jumped to the 1-0 lead when Gorkys Hernandez homered off Kyle Freeland, who started slowly but enjoyed his fifth straight solid outing for the Rockies.
Two innings later, in the top of the fourth, Nolan Arenado walked, Trevor Story singled and that just set the stage for Desmond who ripped the ball out of the field of play and into the seats in left. It was only Desmond’s seventh home run of the season, and off the bat, it looked like he thought it might be off the wall, as he charged out of the box.
What it was, for anyone watching the Rockies this season, was surprising. More likely would have been Desmond hitting into a double play in that situation. Instead, he was incredibly clutch.
Two innings later, there was Desmond again, this time hitting a ground rule double as the ball bounced over the center field fence and Arenado scored, pushing the Rocks up 4-1. The Colorado Rockies are having a terrible year at the plate, currently 29th in batting average (.228), but as Jake Shapiro wrote recently, Desmond was on pace to have the worst season in the history of the MLB.
So, Desmond playing the hero on Friday night was not only unexpected, but incredibly unlikely.
Charlie Blackmon wouldn’t let Desmond steal all the spotlight, as the superstar outfielder knocked a bomb out into right field in the top of the ninth to push the Rockies lead to 6-1, the eventual winning margin. For Blackmon, it was his 12th home run on the season and 11th on the road, which is tied for the NL lead.
Freeland pitched superbly for the Rockies, going 6.2 innings, giving up five hits and the one run while striking out five. Then, Colorado’s bullpen continued his work, disallowing another run as the Rockies won in dominant fashion.
For the purple and black, it was a second straight huge victory on the road for a team who had lost six in eight games before Thursday. The win Friday night means the Rockies improve to 18-9 on the road, which is third-best in the majors. 18 road wins is also the most in the MLB as the Rockies continue their trend of being different than basically every other team in Colorado MLB history. It also means Colorado will at the worst, split the series with the Giants and they’ve scored 11 runs in two games, which is phenomenal considering AT&T Ballpark is a pitcher-friendly park.
The Rockies and Giants go at it for Game 3 of the series tomorrow at 2:05 p.m. MT, and then, again at 2:05 p.m. on Sunday in the last contest of the long series.
Colorado improves to 25-20, 0.5 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks for first in the NL West. In tomorrow’s game, John Gray and Chris Straton go head-to-head as the two teams’ starting pitchers.
