Rockies move back into the playoff picture with blowout of Phillies

DENVER – For the second straight night, the Colorado Rockies offense was going to have to carry them to a vital win over the Philadelphia Phillies. And for the second straight night, they scored 10 runs to back up their pitchers, getting 10 hits on Tuesday night out of the top four spots in the lineup to power a 10-3 win.

They also got some good news from St. Louis where the Cardinals lost to the Brewers, putting Colorado right back into the postseason picture.

The Rockies knew before this one started that it would be an interesting night on the mound. With Tyler Anderson out from shoulder soreness, Chad Bettis, who has spent the better part of the last two months in the bullpen, would need to start the game. But the righty was also limited to 50 pitches at most, Bud Black told the media.

He was able to get through the first two innings relatively quickly, despite allowing baserunners in both, but looked to run out of gas thereafter.

Bettis appeared to be on his way to a 1-2-3 inning in the third when Cesar Hernandez hit a slow hopper toward shortstop. But Trevor Story had to hurry the throw with the speed coming down the line and bobbled the transition, allowing Hernandez to reach and the inning to continue.

Carlos Santana followed with a walk but Bettis made his pitch against Odubal Herrera, jamming him with a fastball up and in. Much to the pitcher’s misfortune, however, Herrera managed to bloop the ball into shallow left field and Hernandez was able to scramble home for the game’s first run.

Bud Black decided it was time to pull the trigger for the bullpen and went to 29-year-old rookie DJ Johnson. Johnson walked power hitter Rhys Hoskins on four pitches to load the bases but got Wilson Ramos to ground out weakly to shortstop to avoid the big inning.

The Rockies didn’t get their first hit until they had two outs in the bottom of the third but ended up answering the Phillies run with a big rally of their own. Charlie Blackmon lined one into left field for a single that extended his hitting streak to a career-high 17 games. DJ LeMahieu followed with a comebacker up the middle for a single of his own that gave David Dahl a chance with two away.

Dahl took a pair of aggressive hacks and came up empty, then laid off a tough pitch before leaning on one and golfing it to left field just as he did on Monday night, hitting a mirror image home run to give his club a 3-1 lead. It was his 12th homer of the season.

Colorado duplicated that effort with another two-out rally in the bottom of the fourth. Chris Iannetta single up the middle and moved up on a sac bunt from Chris Rusin before Blackmon plated another run on a double to right. LeMahieu produced another single back up the middle that score Blackmon and Dahl kept the pressure on by ripping a single to right.

With LeMahieu now at third, Arenado came up with a swinging bunt that fell perfectly between the plate, the mound, and third base, allowing him to reach on what ended up as an RBI single. Story ground out to third to end the inning but not before the Rockies took a 6-1 lead.

They added again in the fifth, loading the bases quickly with a bunt single from Gerardo Parra and a pair of walks for Ian Desmond and Iannetta.

With the pitcher’s spot up and the Rockie firmly into their bullpen game, Black turned to veteran Carlos Gonzalez who has been scuffling at the plate. CarGo worked ahead in the count and got a fastball. He swung a bit late but barrelled it into the gap in left-center field for a two-run double. Those were his first RBI since September 4 and they gave the Rockies an 8-1 lead.

The Phillies got back into a bit in the top of the sixth against reliever Jake McGee. After getting Ramos to ground out, he surrendered a single to light-hitting Dylan Cozens and a gap double to Scott Kingery that plated a run. After walking Jose Bautista, Black made another chance, going with Scott Oberg.

Oberg got a tailor-made double play ball to short but Story committed his second error of the game, unable to field the ball cleanly. A wild pitch allowed another run to come in but Oberg restored sanity to the proceedings with a strikeout of Hernandez and a weak grounder to end the inning off the bat of Santana.

Colorado decided to go ahead and answer that with two more of their own in the seventh on a double from Desmond and singles from LeMahieu and Dahl, again with two outs.

That also made the Rockies 7-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

Colorado improved to 87-70 and with the Cardinals losing to the Brewers have moved a half-game up on the second Wild Card spot with five games to play.

Final Stats:

Chad Bettis: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 E, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

DJ Johnson: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Chris Rusin: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 3 K

Jake McGee: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Scott Oberg: 1.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Yency Almonte: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB

Harrison Musgrave: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB

DJ LeMahieu: 3-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI

David Dahl: 3-for-5, 1 R, 4 RBI (HR: 12)

Nolan Arenado: 2-for-5, 1 RBI

Ian Desmond: 1-for-4, 2 R, 1 BB

Chris Iannetta: 1-for-2, 2 R, 1 BB

What’s Next:

The third game of the series will see the incredibly hot German Marquez, aiming to break the single-season franchise record for strikeouts, against Nick Pavetta who is on a bit of a roll himself, having not given up more than three runs in any of his last five starts.