DENVER – When the pitching rotation for this series showed Antonio Senzatela for Sunday’s start, it seemed divine intervention for the young man who had lost his mother to cancer in 2016 less than a year before he’d reach the majors.
Senzatela gave up a double to Machado in the first before shutting down the extra-base hits for the remainder of six-plus innings during the second Mother’s Day start of his three-year career.
The 24-year-old gave up a single to the opposing pitcher Nick Margevicius and the leadoff hitter Greg Garcia walked with no one out in the third, but Senza was able to escape the jam, surrendering only one run.
From that inning on, he would not surrender a hit until the seventh, retiring thirteen straight. Even the third time through the order, Senzatela looked strong, shutting down six straight atop the Padres’ lineup.
In the seventh, Senzatela got Hunter Renfroe and Ty France to strikeout, his sixth and seventh of the game, before getting into a jam with back-to-back singles to Wil Myers and Austin Allen, who recorded his first major league hit.
Carlos Estévez would give up a single to pinch hitter Alex Dickerson to score Myers and a double to Garcia to score Allen, both runs being charged to Senzatela. But the Rockies kept the lead at this point and quickly answered for several insurance runs in the bottom of the frame that proved to be critical to the outcome.
On offense, it started in the second when Raimel Tapia began with a double that just missed leaving the park. Ryan McMahon followed that up with his own two-bagger to give the Rockies the early lead.
Tony Wolters laced the first pitch he saw into right field to score McMahon.
With one out in the inning, Charlie Blackmon hit a no-doubter into the second deck 464 ft for a two-run homer in a left-on-left matchup with Margevicius to up the purple and pink 4-0.
Blackmon repeated his performance two innings later with a similar blast to right center, this time into the Padres’ bullpen for a solo homer measured at an estimated 450 ft.
The two home run game was Blackmon’s first of the season and eleventh of his career, thus far.
Not to be outdone, the Rockies offense responded with five more runs in that seventh to extend the lead to seven.
After the Coors Field cranks stretched their legs, Trevor Story recorded a one-out single and David Dahl followed by getting hit by a pitch just below his left knee. The 40, 234 in attendance would collectively exhale when he’d stay in the game to take his rightful place at first.
A wild pitch moved up the runners, so Nolan Arenado was intentionally walked for the second time in the game.
Manager Bud Black went to his bench for Daniel Murphy and he would not be disappointed as his pinch hitter smacked a bases-clearing double to put the game out of reach or so it seemed at the time.
Tapia would add his fifth homer on the season, a two-run variety that put the score at 10-3, insurance runs that kept the winning run from coming to the plate in the ninth.
Seunghwan Oh gave up four runs in the ninth which culminated in the Franmil Reyes’ eleventh homer of the season, a three-run shot that brought the game to its final 10-7 score.
Scott Oberg got the final out of the game in the non-save situation.
Before the game, Black spoke about Senzatela’s relationship with his mother, Nidya Yusbelis Rodon.
“To have her pass a couple year ago, as a young player leaving Venezuela to come to the (United) States and to lose your mom… how emotional is that,” Black shared. “He carries her spirit with him every day and to be able to pitch on this day is good stuff.”
Senzatela also started on Mother’s Day in 2017, his rookie season, pitching five innings against the Dodgers to pick up the win.
And today, with every player in ballpark donning the pink in support of the fight against breast cancer to commemorate Mother’s Day, Senzatela pitched his heart out for not only his team, but for the woman who will always represent mi corazón.
