A few short years ago, it was Jon Gray pitching in his first MLB spring training, hoping to impress the coaches, teammates, and fans, all of whom had come to see him as a symbol of the franchise’s future potential.
Now, Brendan Rodgers stands in that same place, not necessarily on the precipice of realizing that potential but taking steps—perhaps even leaps and bounds—toward showing what he is truly capable of.
On Sunday afternoon against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, both Gray and Rodgers took the field together in what would ultimately be a 7-6 win for the Halos.
Gray pitched a clean first two innings but ran into some trouble and some bad luck in the third. An error by Garrett Hampson cost him one run and a line drive double from Justin Upton cost him another before he was able to finish out the frame. He pitched three innings, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out two and walking zero.
Chris Rusin worked a patented quick, clean inning with a strikeout. Jerry Vasto did the same in the eighth.
Upton was at it again in the fifth, launching a two-run homer off of Scott Oberg. Zac Rosscup was tagged for a pair of runs on a Rene Rivera triple in the sixth and James Farris gave up a solo bomb to Jabari Blash in the seventh.
All told, the Rockies pitching surrendered seven runs on 10 hits.
Brendan Rodgers made a huge splash with a two-run shot off of Matt Shoemaker, a pitcher with over 500 IP at the MLB level. The highly-touted prospect is showing this spring he can hang with some quality pitching and may be accelerating his arrival even more. Still, there is almost no way he makes the roster to start the season.
Hampson followed that with a solo home run of his own to give the Rockies a 3-0 early lead.
David Dahl kept his bat alive with an RBI single in the third, scoring Charlie Blackmon.
Sam Hilliard also continued his solid spring with an RBi single in the eighth giving him six hits and four RBI in 16 at-bats so far this spring. Yonathan Daza singled and scored on the Hilliard base hit. Daza is batting .438 this spring.
Ian Desmond has yet to get on track, going 0-for-3 with a strikeout.
