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The hits just keep on coming. And we aren’t talking metaphorically.
If the Colorado Rockies are going to continue to stay in the hunt, they will need the offense to prove that they didn’t just have a hot month and weren’t taking advantage of a string of hittable pitchers.
Beginning with their first game in Arizona, they set out on a nine-game road trip that gives them the opportunity to do just that.
The early signs could not have been more promising in an 8-1 win over the Diamondbacks.
The first challenge was right-handed starter Merrill Kelly who brought a 0.81 ERA over his last three starts into the game.
Colorado got to him right away.
Charlie Blackmon continued his absolutely torrid stretch of late, ripping a double in the first at-bat of the game. He came around on a no-doubt flyball home run off the bat of Nolan Arenado when Kelly hung a breaking ball. It was Arenado’s 18th home run of the season.
Antonio Senzatela, meanwhile, was the quality-start version of himself that he has been roughly 70 percent of the season and not the disaster he has been the other 30 percent.
Though, he sure did develop an odd pattern. Four times he recorded the first two outs in an inning then gave up a single and a walk. The first three times, he got out of it, the last time Jairo Diaz did.
He moved quickly through the first several innings, working around traffic in nearly every inning but doing so with some fantastic pitching. He finally got burned in the fifth after a pair of singles from Jarrod Dyson, on a bunt, and Ketel Marte on a grounder to right put runners at the corners to open the frame.
But he stayed calm and got a pair of groundballs, the first of which scored a run but the second of which induced an inning-ending double play with his club still ahead 2-1.
The Rockies answered that with an explosion of offense that rewarded the workmanlike effort on the mound.
David Dahl got things started with a liner to right for a single and he sprinted around the bases to score on Arenado’s 17th double of the season, a line drive to left.
The Rockies then caught a break when Daniel Murphy reached on catcher’s interference before Ian Desmond swung through one for the first out in the inning. That’s when Ryan McMahon opened the floodgates with a double on a sharp liner to right, plating Arenado and Murphy.
Tony Wolters followed with a grounder to the right side which moved McMahon to third. That usually wouldn’t mean much with two away but a wild pitch allowed McMahon to race home to make it a 6-1 game in favor of Colorado.
Senzatela once again pitched around a baserunner – a one-out double for Christian Walker – in the sixth to keep the game where it was.
The Rockies offense did not let up.
Blackmon came up with his third hit in the game, and 18th in the last five games, to lead off the seventh and he moved over to third on a double by Trevor Story. Two more runs came in on productive outs from Dahl and Desmond to make it 8-1.
Blackmon is the 12th player since 1903 to have five consecutive games with at least three hits.
After getting the final out of the seventh, Diaz stayed on for the eighth and got four grounders, one of which Arenado committed a rare throwing error on. The others were converted into outs to send the game to the ninth.
Carlos Estevez got the baseball in the ninth, retiring the first two batters on three pitches before getting a four-pitch strikeout to end the game with no dramatics from the bullpen.
Colorado improved to 38-34 and took sole possession of second place in the NL West.
