When you’re hot, you’re hot.
The Colorado Rockies continued their hot hitting Sunday afternoon, beating up Padres starting pitcher Jacob Nix despite a great game by him, winning 7-3 to split the four-game series.
In the first, Nolan Arenado’s sacrifice fly sent Charlie Blackmon home for a 1-0 lead that was short-lived.
That’s because Kyle Freeland walked Freddy Galvis and then Luis Urias singled and Freeland kept struggling as he walked Eric Hosmer, to load the bases. With two outs, Franmil Reyes singled to score Galvis and Urias for the 2-1 lead.
At that point, both starting pitchers found their respective grooves, disallowing a run in either the third or fourth innings.
Colorado tied the game up at 2-2 in the top of the fourth when David Dahl hit a sacrifice fly to score Arenado, who reached on a single of his own.
But, again, the Padres scored to take back the lead in the bottom half of the inning when Manuel Margot hit a double and was sent home thanks to A.J. Ellis’ single to make it 3-2, San Diego.
That was the last run and last lead of the game for the home team, though as Colorado came roaring back to steal the victory.
After DJ LeMahieu walked in the top of the sixth, Trevor Story hit his second double of the game to send him home and tie the contest 3-3.
But the seventh is where things got really interesting. First, Ian Desmond hit a single and Gerardo Parra walked. Manager Bud Black dialed up the double-steal to move both of them over to second and third base, respectively before Chris Iannetta doubled to sent them both home. Iannetta later scored when Blackmon singled and the Rockies led 6-3 at that point.
Freeland worked six innings, giving up seven hits but only the three runs, with two walks and three strikeouts to earn the victory. He improved to 13-7 on the year, leading the team in wins.
And in the eighth, Dahl added an insurance run with a solo home run to push the lead to 7-3, the eventual winning margin.
For the Rockies, the win was crucial. Not only did they split the series with San Diego, Colorado also created a three-way tie for first place in the NL West with both the Arizona Diamondbacks and LA Dodgers. All three teams are currently 74-62 with the two latter teams facing off currently.
Colorado now has 26 games remaining to find a way to win their division for the first time in franchise history.