Harper's homer snaps Rockies winning streak

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies were looking to steal a win on Saturday evening at Coors Field. Sending Antonio Senzatela to the mound to counter 2018 Cy Young candidate Aaron Nola, this was going to be a tough game on paper for the home team to notch their sixth-straight win.

Senzatela was good but not as good as his season debut, faltering in just one inning but Nola wasn’t his sharpest, giving Colorado plenty of chances early.

Charlie Blackmon picked up literally exactly where he left off. After hammering a walk-off home run on the last pitch he saw Friday evening – even though he hadn’t hit a homer all year – his eyes lit up once again of the very next pitch he saw, the first one on Saturday, and lined it over the wall to almost the same spot for his second consecutive round-tripper.

Raimel Tapia made it two leadoff home runs in a row but did so in unconventional fashion. He stayed back on a breaking ball from Nolan and smashed it into the gap, thinking for a moment that it might get over the wall. It didn’t but he turned on the jets coming around second as the ball skipped away from the outfielders and races all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run to give Colorado a 2-0 lead.

It was only the 18th inside-the-parker in Rockies history and the first since Blackmon hit one in July of 2017.

The Phillies struck back in the third with some well-executed small ball. Maikel Franco led off with a groundball single up the middle and advanced on the sac bunt by Nola. Senzatela struck out Andrew McCutchen but Cesar Hernandez managed a soft liner to left that scored Franco from second.

Colorado answered with a run in the bottom of the frame, coming on three straight singles from Blackmon, David Dahl, and Trevor Story to make it a 3-1 advantage.

But Philadelphia once again came right back on a series of singles of their own (Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto, and Roman Quinn) punctuated by a big bases-clearing double off the bad of Phil Gosselin who cleared the bases and swung the game in favor of the Phils at 4-3.

Senzatela cleaned it up thereafter and left it up to the bullpen starting in the seventh.

Bryan Shaw came on and got a pair of quick outs before giving up a single to McCutchen. He gave way to Mike Dunn who got a groundball out of Hernandez but the ball snuck just by a pulled-in Ryan McMahon at third for a double to put runners at second and third with one out.

Dunn worked ahead of Bryce Harper and got into a 1-2 count but left a slider in the middle of the zone that the powerful bat did not miss, driving it just over the wall in right for a three-run homer to give the Phillies a 7-3 lead.

After plating a run in each of the first three innings, the Rockies’ bats fell silent until an attempted two-out rally in the sixth on singles from McMahon and Mark Reynolds, but Tapia flew out to left, leaving the game where it was.

But in the eighth, they got back-to-back singles from the bottom of the order, Garrett Hampson and Drew Butera, to lead off the inning. Ian Desmond was able to bring a run in on a pinch-hit sac fly into the right-center field gap to pull the Rockies to within three.

Blackmon backed that up by leaning on yet another hard line drive, almost managing his second homer of the game, settling for an RBI triple high off the wall in center field, making it a two-run game.

The Phillies decided to make a change and hand the ball to Hector Neris who struck out Dahl but gave up hard contact to Story on two straight pitches, one of which looked like it might have tied the game just before going foul. Story ultimately flew out on a hard line drive to left, leaving Blackmon at third.

Seunghwan Oh came on for the Rockies in the top of the ninth trying to keep the game close but was ambushed on an inside fastball by McCutchen who turned on the pitch and drove it over the wall in left to make it 8-5.

Colorado could not mount a comeback in the bottom of the ninth and their winning streak was snapped at five games.

The Rockies offense left 10 runners on base.

What’s Next

The final game of the four-game set takes place Sunday afternoon. Jon Gray will go against Jerad Eikoff. First pitch at 1:10 Mountain Time.