Rockies beat A's with clutch pitching, timely hitting

DENVER – The Oakland Athletics came into their series at Coors Field with a .781 winning percentage since June 19, the only team with a better record in MLB than the Colorado Rockies during that span.

But Colorado once again beat a good team by executing the fundamentals; great pitching and defense combined with timely hitting. That combo led to a 3-1 victory, giving the Rockies 17 wins in their last 22 games.

Freeland dealt with a lot of traffic in the first three innings, including loading them up in the first after a walk, an error, and a hit batsmen. He gave up a pair of singles in the second and walked a man in the third, but each time he kept his composure and delivered quality offerings to escape any damage.

Colorado had a chance to score in the first after Charlie Blackmon’s leadoff double into the opposite-field gap. He even moved up on an Ian Desmond grounder to the right side, giving Nolan Arenado a chance to drive him in without the benefit of a hit. But the Rockies star uncharacteristically struck out before Trevor Story ended things with a groundout to third.

The Rockies scored the first run of the game employing some small-ball tactics that have eluded them in recent attempts. But Noel Cuevas caught the A’s off guard when he laid down a perfect bunt for a hit to start the second. He moved to third on a single just over the shortstops head off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez.

Rookie Garrett Hampson then executed the second perfect bunt of the inning, laying one just down the first-base line. Matt Olson appeared to be intent on barehanding the ball for a throw home, but couldn’t pick it up cleanly and everybody was safe.

Colorado was still in business with a pair of runners aboard and nobody out, but Chris Iannetta struck out, Freeland’s bunt failed to advance the runners, and Blackmon ground out to first, meaning the Rockies had to settle for one run.

Freeland ran into more trouble in the fifth after the A’s opened up with back-to-back singles just barely out of reach of the third-baseman Arenado. After getting Jed Lowrie to line out, which advanced a runner to third, Freeland lost power-hitter Kris Davis after a long battle, walking him to load the bases.

But again, he kept his focus and got Stephen Piscotty to hit a third ball toward the hot corner. Arenado was able to field this one despite another tough hop and fire over to second but low. Hampson made a nice dig and relay throw to complete the double play and make sure the Rockies left the inning still clinging to a 1-0 lead.

The Rockies responded by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Blackmon hit his second leadoff double of the game, this time pulling a line drive just inside the line in right field. He was cashed in when Desmond hit a ground by a diving Olsen at first, but Desi was thrown out at second trying to stretch his base hit into extra bases.

That cost the Rockies a run when Nolan Arenado smashed his 26th round-tripper of the season and the 100th home run of his career to come at Coors Field. He became the seventh player in Colorado history to reach that mark joining Todd Helton, Larry Walker, Carlos Gonzalez, Vinny Castilla, Dante Bichette, and Troy Tulowitzki.

Bryan Shaw came on for the seventh and the A’s immediately began to find some offensive rhythm. First, Marcus Semien drove one to deep center that just barely stayed in the park, falling harmlessly into Blackmon’s glove but Matt Chapman and Jed Lowrie kept their line drives away from any fielders, hammering consecutive doubles to get Oakland on the board.

Shaw bounced back with a huge strikeout of Davis before making way for Scott Oberg who struck out Piscotty on three pitches to strand a runner at second and keep the game at a 3-1 advantage.

Oberg stayed on for the eighth and found himself in a considerably more difficult battle. Mark Canha came up with a one-out single to left and advanced when a Jonathan Lucroy grounder squeeked through the left side, narrowly avoiding an inning-ending double play.

He got a soft roller out of pinch-hitter Nick Martini wherein Arenado was able to tag out the lead runner but a few tough calls in the zone and on a check swing led to a walk of Semien, loading the bases. Like Freeland earlier in the game, Oberg found some of his best pitches in the high-leverage situation, striking out Matt Chapman looking on a devastating slider.

With closer Wade Davis unavailable, Adam Ottavino came on in the ninth for the save attempt and got a 1-2-3 inning to secure the win.

Rockies pitching stranded 13 A’s runners in the game.

Colorado improves to 54-47. They are 21-9 since June 19.

Final Stats:

Kyle Freeland: 6 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

Bryan Shaw: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Scott Oberg: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

Adam Ottavino: 1 IP,

What’s Next:

Game 2 of the series takes place on Saturday night at Coors Field with a first pitch set for 6:10 Mountain Time. Antonio Senzatela is slated to face former-Rockie Brett Anderson.