Rockies firing on all cylinders, toast Snakes in LoDo

DENVER – Before Saturday night’s 9-1 beatdown of the Arizona Diamondbacks by the Colorado Rockies, Bud Black talked about the adjustments he was hoping to see out of starting pitcher Tyler Anderson.

“He’s got to pitch better,” he said. “That means locating the ball. His style of pitching is disrupting the timing, changing speeds and hitting good spots with all of his pitches and he hasn’t done that this year.”

Until now.

Anderson pitched by far his best game of the season in a big divisional win, going six innings allowing just one hard hit ball and becoming the first Rockies starter to reach double-digit strikeouts this season.

“We’ve talked the last three starts about staying a bit taller on his back leg creating a better angle down the mound and in for his pitches,” Black said. “For his breaking ball to have more depth his fastball to be more downhill. So taller on the backside and a little bit of a shorter stride. In innings he’s strung a couple pitches together or innings together over his starts.”

What made this bounceback outing even more impressive was that he did it against a team he has seen a lot already in his career who he has struggled against. Anderson had three no-decisions with a 7.80 ERA (15.0 IP, 13 ER)  three starts vs. Arizona … had two no-decisions, both Rockies losses, last season.

But Anderson had much better command of his stuff, especially the changeup, in this contest, which should boost his confidence moving forward. He retired 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced, nine of those eleven strikeouts.

His final line: 6 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K. He tied his career high in strikeouts and is the first Rockies starter this year to get into double digits in that category. He threw 66 of his 103 pitches for strikes.

Speaking of boosting confidence, the Rockies offense needed one and they got it, exploding for nine runs on five extra-base hits.

Charlie Blackmon got the scoring started in the bottom of the first with a lead-off double and DJ LeMahieu followed with a single to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Nolan Arenado came through with another go-ahead RBI, his specialty, on a single to center. LeMahieu scored the second run on a passed ball before Mark Reynolds smashed his 10th home run of the season to make it 4-0 Rockies. That home run total is good for third in the National League.

The Diamondbacks got one back in the second, the only inning in which Anderson really looked like he was in trouble. He gave up the hard double to Brandon Drury who came in on a Gregor Blanco single, one of the few to actually escape the infield. Of the six hits Anderson gave up, three were infield singles.

Colorado made it 5-1 in the third on Arenado’s eighth home run of the season. The added a pair in the fourth when Blackmon tripled in Anderson who had reached via fielder’s choice. Blackmon came in on DJ LeMahieu‘s second single of the game. Gerardo Parra and Ryan Hanigan contributed to the scoring in the fifth and sixth respectively with singles of their own.

Every single starter grabbed at least one base hit tonight for Colorado. The Top 3 in the lineup — Blackmon, LeMahieu, and Arenado — each had a multi-hit game. All drove in at least one run.

With a single in the eighth, Blackmon is now 37-for-his-last-111 which is a .333 batting average over his last 26 games. He has base hits in 23 of those 26 games. He is slugging .761 over his last 15 games.

Chris Rusin worked the final three innings for a rare long save. It was the first save of his MLB career.

Colorado moved to 19-121 on the season and took a game-and-a-half lead in the NL West.