Gray dominates, Rockies outfield comes through in win over Cardinals

In the 49 games leading into Tuesday night’s contest between the Colorado Rockies and St. Louis Cardinals, Carlos Gonzalez was hitting .330/.378/.566 with eight home runs and 29 RBI. And somehow that production has managed to fly under the radar.

He kept it going on a 2-for-3 night at the plate with another big round-tripper, pairing perfectly with Gray’s third consecutive brilliant outing. CarGo’s seventh-inning blast pretty much sealed the deal.

The Rockies Opening Day starter went at least seven innings for the third straight time and the offense scored a pair of runs in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to take the second game in St. Louis by a score of 6-3.

The Cardinals took the lead in the very first at-bat of the game when Matt Carpenter got ahold of a slider that Gray hung over the middle of the plate, launching it over the right-center field wall.

Gray bounced back to retire the next 13 batters he faced.

The Rockies missed a chance in the fourth after back-to-back one-out singles from Arenado and Gonzalez. Trevor Story popped out to the catcher and Parra hit a grounder that appeared to be headed for center field but was knocked down by the pitcher and converted into an out by shortstop Paul DeJong.

Ryan McMahon led off the top of the fifth with one of his more impressive at-bats at the big league level, drawing a walk after seeing 12 pitches. That ended up being huge two batters later when Charlie Blackmon smashed his 21st home run of the season, pulling a hanging slider into nearly the exact same spot that Carpenter hit his, swinging the score in favor of the Rockies, 2-1.

Colorado added two more runs in the sixth thanks to another walk, this one from Gonzalez, and a pair of doubles from Story and Parra.

Parra has been the sixth best player in baseball at hitting with runners in scoring position, batting .353 in those situations.

CarGo’s seventh-inning homer extended the Rockies lead out to 6-1.

Gray kept cruising and came out for the eighth where he finally seemed to lose the feel a bit. Tyler O’Neil was able to fight off a tough pitch to hit a grounder back up the middle and Gray walked Dexter Fowler for the second time in the game despite his .179 batting average. He rebounded to strike out Jose Martinez but Yairo Munoz lined a single to left, loading the bases and ending Gray’s night.

Newcomer Seungwhan Oh got Carpenter to work under the baseball for a fly out that did earn him a sacrifice. He then unleashed a wild pitch that was compounded by a Tom Murphy throwing error, allowing Fowler to score. But Oh got Yadier Molina to ground out to second, preserving a three-run lead for the final frame.

Wade Davis, as per usual, was given the ninth-inning duties, and worked a quick 1-2-3 inning with a punchout to put this one in the win column for Colorado.

Colorado moves to 58-48 and as of the publishing of this article are tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks for second place in the NL West, just a half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Final Stats:

Jon Gray: 7.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K

Seungwhan Oh: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Wade Davis: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K (S: 31)

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI HR (13)

Charlie Blackmon: 1-for-5, 1 R, 2 RBI HR (21)

Trevor Story: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI

Gerardo Parra: 2-for-4, 1 RBI

Ryan McMahon: 0-for-2, 1 R, 2 BB

Ian Desmond: 0-for-3, 1 R, BB