The Colorado Rockies appeared on television for the first time this spring and, of course, all the hitters who had been making waves so far came up empty. Isn’t that always the way?
Still, the Rockies pitched well and kept the Seattle Mariners offense more off balance than their own en route to a 3-2 victory.
The offense came early for both teams. Mike Tauchman continues to make his case for the final bench spot, ripping a triple down the right-field line to score Daniel Castro who went 3-for-3. Tauchman scored on a throwing error to give Colorado a lead.
Catcher Tom Murphy hit his second homer of the spring in the fourth scoring what would turn out to be the deciding run. It was an absolute smash shot on a pitch out away from him that he drove deep over the right-center field wall in a perfect display of exactly what he will need to do in order to make a splash for the Rockies in 2018.
German Marquez, despite being pounced on out of the gate by Dee Gordon and Robinson Cano for a run, was absolutely fantastic in commanding the strike zone and inducing empty swings. He finished with three innings pitched, giving up one run on three hits, striking out four without walking a batter. The youngster looks more and more like an aged veteran as the days go by.
Chris Rusin had an odd inning in which he threw only one pitch that wasn’t unhittable, and boy did it get hit. Mike Zunino took him way deep to right field off of a high fastball but nobody who saw what Rusin was dealing would be worried about where he stands from a sharpness point of view right now.
Jairo Diaz was mighty impressive again, pitching a clean inning with a pair of strikeouts.
Sam Howard and Zach Jemiola, both of whom have a very good chance of making their MLB debut sometime in 2018, pitched the final four innings at two apiece. Both gave up just one hit and struck out a pair.
Altogether, Colorado pitching allowed two runs on six hits, striking out 11 and walking one batter.
The Rockies take on the Texas Rangers on Wednesday at 1:10 pm MST. Antonio Senzatela is scheduled to get the start against Clayton Blackburn.
