Rockies fight off evil forces, secure win in Miami

The Colorado Rockies have known their trips to Florida to face the Miami Marlins to regularly become a house of horrors. When the first game of their long road trip began with some tough news, it looked like the place would continue to haunt them, but somehow they emerged with a 1-0 victory.

So, it was terrible in ways but slightly more inviting… like a home of horrors.

Antonio Senzatela played the role of House Belmont (look it up) in battling against the ancient darkness and restoring light to places long since forgotten by the evil forces that rear their ugly heads in Miami.

A pair of early exits gave Rockies fans flashbacks to those nightmarish days of yore.

After striking out Brian Anderson and surrendering a single to Justin Bour, Anderson could be seen gasping for air and after a conference on the mound, he was removed from the game.

Just a few minuted later, before the bottom of the fourth, DJ LeMahieu, who had doubled in his previous at-bat, was removed with a tight right hamstring.

We await word on how these injuries may impact the Rockies in the long term.

Senzatela replaced Anderson on the mound and was magnificent, allowing just two baserunners in nearly four innings of work, striking out four. He spotted the outside fastball with extraordinary precision, touching 97 mph.

He also did the heavy lifting on offense.

With one out in the fifth, Gerardo Parra doubled to center and scored on a surprise ground ball double from Senzatela just inside the third-base bag.

He did quite a lot to show that he deserves the spot he has been given and would be well suited to step into the rotation should the Rockies need him to.

Senza was relieved by Bryan Shaw in the sixth who worked a clean inning.

After getting a pair of outs, Jake McGee ran into some trouble in the seventh, walking a batter and giving up a single up the middle, but Adam Ottavino came on to get the final out.

Otto stayed on for the eighth and worked into, and then out of, a little bit of trouble. J.T. Realmuto managed to line a solid single to left off of his slider and Starlin Castro ran into some good fortune with an infield hit to second that might have been an out if not for Pat Valaika slipping. Was hard not to think about what LeMahieu would have done there.

Those were only the third and fourth hits against Ottavino all season, but they wouldn’t matter as he would strike out Anderson and Justin Bour back-to-back to end the rally.

The Rockies loaded the bases in both the eighth and the ninth but strikeouts from Trevor Story (in the eighth) and Pat Valaika and Charlie Blackmon (in the ninth) left the potential insurance runs stranded.

So Wade Davis came on with his team still clinging to a one-run lead and surrendered a lead-off single to Derek Dietrich then struck out Miguel Rojas and Lewis Brinson but somehow walked J.B. Shuck to bring the Marlins best hitter, Realmuto, to the plate.

Nothing ever comes easy in Miami for this club, but he got him to ground out to short to end it, securing the shutout and the odd 1-0 win… with Senzatela as the only person in the game who drove in a run. It was the 10th save of the season for Davis. He has blown one.

This is the only time in franchise history that the only RBI in a game for the Rockies came off the bat of a relief pitcher, according to the ATT&T Sports broadcast. It hasn’t been done in all of baseball since 1980.

Colorado is now 10-5 on the road, the first team in MLB to reach double-digit road wins. They improved to 15-12 overall.

Final Stats:

Tyler Anderson: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

Antonio Senzatela: 3.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Bryan Shaw: 1 IP

Jake McGee: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 B, 1 K

Adam Ottavino: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Wade Davis: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K

Gerardo Parra: 2-for-3, 1 R, 2B

Antonio Senzatela: 1-for-2, RBI, 2B

DJ LeMahieu: 1-for-2

Ryan McMahon: 1-for-1, BB

What’s Next:

Game 2 on Saturday will start at 5:10 Mountain Time once more. German Marquez gets the rock against lefty Caleb Smith.