Offensive baseball, what’s not to love?
The Colorado Rockies defeated the New York Mets Wednesday night, 10-8, a classic contest played at altitude as the teams combined for 20-plus hits and nearly 20 runs throughout the night.
The Mets got out to a quick start when they scored three runs in the first inning off of Rockies starting pitcher Chad Bettis. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a ground-rule double for the first hit of the ballgame and then scored on a single hit by Michael Confroto. Later in the inning, catcher Devin Mesoraco hit a double to left field to score an additional two runs.
The Rockies were able to get a run back in the bottom half of the first inning when Nolan Arenado blasted a home run over the fence in left field to make the score 3-1; however, the Mets would clap back in the second inning when Todd Frazier hit an RBI single to center field.
The Rockies offense was able to get going in the bottom half of the second where Gerardo Parra and D.J. LeMahieu each drove home runs on singles and Bettis helped himself out by scoring a run via a groundout. At the end of the first two innings, the score was 4-4.
Bettis went on to work a clean third inning and the Rockies were then able to grab their first lead of the ballgame in the bottom half when Parra hit his second RBI single of the night and catcher Tom Murphy also hit an RBI single which put the Rockies ahead 6-4.
The Mets again pulled ahead in the fifth inning where they scored four runs. Wilmar Flores drove home the first run via a sacrifice fly. Later in the inning, Chris Rusin relieved Bettis on the mound and proceeded to walk home a run, which was compounded by two-RBI single hit by Cabrera in the following at bat to push the Mets ahead 8-6.
Despite being down once again, youngster Ryan McMahon took matters into his own hands in the bottom of the fifth inning by smacking a three-run home run to right field to give Colorado a 9-8 advantage. The home run was the second pinch-hit home run of the season for the Rockies.
From there, the Rockies bullpen was able to lock things down and solidify the victory for the club while Charlie Blackmon put the icing on the cake with a solo home run to right field in the sixth inning for what would be the final run of the ballgame.
Chad Bettis finished with a line of 4.2 innings pitched, allowing eight runs on nine hits while walking five batters and striking out four. Rockies’ closer Wade Davis recorded his 100th career save in the victory and his 21st of the season. Interestingly enough, Bryan Shaw, who has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball this season, earned the win Wednesday for Colorado.
The Rockies improved to 36-38, but they’re still 4.5 games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks in first place in the NL West.
The Rockies have a chance to sweep the Mets Thursday afternoon at Coors Field with first pitch set for 1:10 MST.