Rox on Top: Colorado beats Mariners to snap losing streak and reclaim first place in NL West

The Colorado Rockies snapped a three-game losing streak, finally solving the riddle of the Seattle Mariners to secure a 6-3 win and reclaim the top spot in the NL West. At least, for the time being.

Kyle Freeland did his part, getting another quality start and bettering his rookie-best ERA to earn the win while the Rockies All-Star candidates did their part to carry the offensive load.

The Rockies put up a big inning — something that has happened a lot this season — in the second, plating four runs in the frame, finally breaking their scoreless streak after being shutout on Wednesday.

Mark Reynolds, as he so often does, got things started with a screaming line-drive home run, scoring Carlos Gonzalez who had worked a walk in a nice at-bat. Gerardo Parra followed that up immediately with a ground-rule double to left-center field, a nice piece of hitting. He moved up to third on a sac bunt from Ian Desmond and scored on a single that Trevor Story pulled through the left side of the infield with one of his more refined efforts of the season. Story has fairly been critiqued for an “all or nothing approach” but he stayed quiet and put a good contact swing on the ball to drive in the third run of the frame.

Story moved to third on a successful hit-and-run (for both the hit and the run) as Tony Wolters singled to right field. He scored on a sac fly from Charlie Blackmon to make it 4-0 before the Mariners could finally escape the inning. Reynolds was momentarily tied with Blackmon for the MLB lead in RBI at 46 until the sac fly which put Charlie back in sole possession of first place at 47.

Seattle got a run right back on a solo home run from Guillermo Heredia in the bottom of the second.

Nolan Arenado counterpunched in the third with a solo home run of his own, his 13th big fly of the season and 35th RBI.

Freeland saw his only real jam of the day in the fourth when he plunked the first two batters of the inning. But a beautiful stop from Story going up the middle followed by a brilliant relay throw from Arenado meant that the Mariners would get just one run on a sac fly, while Freeland battled his way out of any serious damage.

The Rockies rookie pitcher wasn’t dominant by any means, striking out just three and giving up more contact than we have seen throughout most of 2017. But he kept his cool (the Colorado rookie pitcher calling card) and never let traffic effect him, staying mostly on the edges of the strike zone and ultimately posting six innings of two-run baseball.

Colorado added an insurance run in the fifth on another RBI single from Parra who is fourth on the team in that category with 27. Parra went 4-for-4 in this game to raise his batting average to .312. He scored Gonzalez who walked three times in this game, scored twice, and threw out a base hit in his only official at-bat.

Chris Rusin came on in the seventh and gave up a tough-luck run to the speedy Jarrod Dyson on a swinging bunt, a wild pitch, and a single from Boog Powell. But he stranded a pair of runners getting Kyle Seager to pop out on the infield and striking out Heredia with a gorgeous change-up.

Jake McGee worked the eighth and allowed a two-out double to Carlos Ruiz but struck out Dyson to keep him right there. McGee lowered his ERA in 21.2 innings this season to 1.66. He is striking out over 12 and walking under three batters per nine innings. He looks completely back to being the force of nature he was in Tampa Bay.

Greg Holland did what Greg Holland does — he slammed the door shut on a Rockies win. He recorded his 20th consecutive save, extending his MLB lead in that category to five more than second place, by getting three quick outs around a walk, putting the final punctuation on the game with a punchout of Seager.

The Rockies moved to 34-22 on the season and have taken a momentary lead in the NL West which will hold if the Arizona Diamondbacks lose tonight. Either way, the Rockies will at least wake up in a tie for first tomorrow.