Rockies-Angels series grades: Living by the pitching

The Colorado Rockies returned home from a successful road trip to face the Los Angeles Angels in an odd interleague, two-game series that they split.

They won the first game on the back of another stellar outing from Jon Gray and a pair of extra-base hits from Trevor Story and lost in the second in runaway fashion on a down night for Tyler Anderson and total lack of production from the bottom half of the lineup.

Here are our individual player grades for the series:

Nolan Arenado (B+): He went 3-for-7 with a walk and a run scored but did not collect an RBI in the short set. He hit one double and struck out once.

Trevor Story (B+): His double and triple in the first game against the Angels ended up being the difference in the score, getting two RBI and a run in a game the team won by two. He walked in the second contest but otherwise did not contribute.

Carlos Gonzalez (B): CarGo threw out two hits, one of which was a double, in just four at-bats but did not factor in any scoring.

David Dahl (B-): Dahl went 2-for-6 with a double and also did not manage to factor into any scoring plays.

DJ LeMahieu (C): He threw out an RBI single in his second at-bat back from the DL and played nice defense the only game he played in the series, going hitless in his other three appearances.

Charlie Blackmon (C-): Blackmon only tallied one hit in seven at-bats but walked twice as pitchers get more and more careful with him. He scored a run and struck out twice.

Gerardo Parra: (C-): Parra collected one hit and one RBI in five at-bats.

Ian Desmond (F): It’s not secret by now that Desmond had a miserable series, going 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts, getting booed off the field by the home crowd with increasing veracity in the second game.

Jon Gray (A-): The Rockies came into the first game of the homestand needing a quality start from the top man in their rotation and they got more than that in a dominant seven-inning performance from Jon Gray. He gave up just four hits and did not surrender a run, walking one and striking out eight in his third straight excellent start.

Tyler Anderson (C-): It was a not-good-but-not-terrible outing for Anderson to follow up on Gray’s record-breaking day. It busted the streak but just barely.