The Colorado Rockies picked up their first interleague win in 2015 Tuesday night and ended a near-record-setting streak of 14 consecutive interleague losses with a 2-1 victory in Oakland.
Jorge de la Rosa pitched seven innings of four-hit scoreless baseball en route to his fifth victory on the year. Colorado is 7-1 in his last 8 starts. Highlights of de la Rosa’s night are provided below by mlb.com:
Wilin Rosario scored what proved to be the winning run, scoring on a wild pitch in the sixth inning. He gambled going first to third just moments before on a single to right field by Brandon Barnes.
“That was a good time to be aggressive,” Rosario told mlb.com. “The way we lost the last three games, I knew we needed to stop that.”
On the other side of the pitcher’s duel was emergency starter Chris Bassitt, who was called up from Triple-A Nashville earlier in the day when scheduled starter Sonny Gray was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. Pitching on just three days rest, Bassitt limited Colorado to one run on five hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked none.
Colorado was forced to do without closer John Axford, who was placed on the 7-day family medical emergency temporary inactive list to deal with a family matter. The club was quick to point out that Axford’s time off is not related to the snakebite injury his son, Jameson, suffered during Spring Training.
In Axford’s absence, LaTroy Hawkins earned his second save on the season. Hawkins lost the closer’s role to Adam Ottovino after blowing consecutive opportunities in April. Axford inherited the role when Ottovino went down for the season with an elbow injury requiring Tommy John surgery. Axford has been stellar in the role, converting 13 of 14 opportunities and maintaining a sub-2.00 ERA for much of the year.
Colorado escaped making the wrong kind of history with the win. The Rockies 14-game interleague losing streak entering the game trailed the 2005 and 2006 Los Angeles Dodgers for the worst-ever by just one game.
