DENVER – In his last start, Chi Chi Gonzalez redeemed himself after an atrocious 0.2 inning performance with an impressive six-inning showing against the first place Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing just two runs.
Tuesday night, he was even better against the first place St. Louis Cardinals, holding the NL Central leaders to a single run and earning his first win as a member of Colorado and first since 2015.
Throughout the night, Gonzalez successfully mixed his cutter, slider and four-seam fastball, keeping Cardinals’ hitters off-balance and inducing weak contact while not surrendering even one free pass, snapping a season-long streak of 22 games in which Rockies’ starters issued at least one walk.
After a Charlie Blackmon single in the first, Nolan Arenado obliterated a 2-1 changeup to left field onto the concourse, a 482 ft blast that put the third baseman at 38 home runs for the season. Since August 1, Arenado leads all of baseball with 16 home runs.
Gonzalez cruised in the early going with the 2-0 lead, giving up a single to Marcell Ozuna in the second before a strike-em-out-throw-em-out double play on a Yadier Molina strikeout and Tony Wolters’ 21st caught stealing of the season.
Former Rockies’ outfielder Dexter Fowler doubled to start the fourth and was moved up twice on ground balls, scoring on a routine grounder to Arenado off the bat of ol’ DBacks’ nemesis Paul Goldschmidt for the first Cardinals’ run.
Gonzalez found himself in a precarious situation after his own fielding error and two singles loaded the bases with one out in the fifth. Miraculously, the 27-year-old righty got a line out from pinch hitter Matt Carpenter and a ground out by Fowler to end the threat.
In the seventh, Bud Black called upon Bryan Shaw to preserve the lead. He walked Paul DeJong on seven pitches and hit Molina with a cutter up-and-in. Shaw nearly produced a double play against the next bater, but Tommy Edman legged it out to place runners on the corners with only one out.
With a chance to play spoiler and retain the club’s sense of pride, Black went to Carlos Estevez, arguably the best reliever not named Scott Oberg for Colorado this season, earlier than he’d have like. Estevez bailed out Shaw and the Rockies with a strikeout of the next two batters, including a three-pitch performance against Jose Martinez that culminated with a flailing swing from the pinch hitter.
Jairo Diaz came in for the rare two-inning save, his second of the season, finishing the low-scoring affair with a game-ending double play to send home the 31,154 in attendance with a smile on their face for the first time in seven contests at Coors Field.
