When the Rox are rollin’, look out.
Colorado jumped out to an early lead against the marvelous Mariners on Charlie Blackmon’s home run in the first, and they never looked back, winning 7-1. From the first pitch, the Rockies played up to the Mariners, who entered the game 24 games over .500, as the road team made diving catches in the outfield, threw out stolen base attempts and more.
The Rockies were seeing the ball well out of the hand of Felix Hernandez to start the game; Blackmon homered, Carlos Gonzalez punched a hit into left field and Trevor Story hit one up the middle before the end of the inning.
The second inning brought more fireworks for Colorado. Raimel Tapia knocked a ground rule double that would’ve been a triple or inside-the-parker if it didn’t bounce off the warning track and into the seats. But it didn’t matter because Tony Wolters smashed a triple, sending Ben Gamel into the wall while sending Tapia home. The next pitch, D.J. LeMahieu hit a sacrifice fly and the Rockies quickly led 3-0 after 1.5 innings.
They would have made it 4-0 in the third inning but Dee Gordon dove and flailed an arm out to grab a bouncing, hart-hit ball from Gerardo Parra which would have scored Story.
Meanwhile, on the mound, German Marquez continued his dominant pitching from his last start, where he went 8.0 IP and allowed zero runs. On Friday night, Marquez started the game perfect through three innings outside of Nolan Arenado’s uncharacteristic error.
Finally, in the fourth, Seattle struck with back-to-back singles, their first hits. But Marquez came through with his second and third strikeouts of the night, both on breaking balls, making Mariners batters look silly to hold onto that 3-0 lead. And through six, still no runs were given up by Marquez.
In the sixth inning, Colorado’s offense got going again. Ian Desmond singled and moved up on an error and then Ramiel Tapia reached first base; each of them were hit home on Tony Wolters’ second triple on the day. Then, Wolters scored when LeMahieu hit a ground rule double. That left it 6-0 midway through the sixth inning.
In that sixth inning, Gordon got on and made it to third, trying to steal home after a wild pitch by Marquez but Marquez was able to tag him out at the plate thanks to Wolters’ throw. The next batter, Denard Span, went yard for the Mariners only run of the game. 6-1 Rockies, after six.
Marquez pitched 6.0 innings, giving up the one run with five hits allowed and five strikeouts, winning the game and improving to 7-8 on the year.
After Marquez left, Jake McGee came in and struck out one in the seventh. Scott Oberg came into the eighth and allowed two baserunners before he helped the Rockies infield turned a double play.
In the ninth, Blackmon hit a single before Gonzalez smashed another double, scoring Blackmon for the 7-1 victory. Chris Rusin shut it down in the ninth to secure the win.
With the victory, Colorado improved to 45-43, just 3 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West. It was the Rockies fourth straight win, and seventh victory in eight games. Colorado has also allowed only four runs over the last four games.
The Rockies now take on the Mariners (56-33) in back-to-back afternoon games (2:10 p.m. MT starts) on Saturday and Sunday to decide the series.
Notes:
Wolters two triples were the first time in Rockies history a catcher hit two triples in a game. Wolters also threw Dee Gordon out at second base when he was trying to steal in the first inning.
Huge hits: Colorado had three doubles, two triples and a home run in the game.
When Marquez gave up the homer in the sixth inning, it ended a 24.0 inning streak by the Rockies since they had given up a run, the second-longest streak in their history.
