Rockies homer thrice in an inning, hang on late for win over Mets

The Colorado Rockies offense doesn’t appear to be discouraged by all the damage they’ve done lately that has gone unrewarded with wins thanks to late-game bullpen collapses.

They put up another big number, scoring 10 runs on 16 hits in the second of a four-game set against the New York Mets giving them 55 runs over their last seven games.

There were still some tense late moments and the game wasn’t a comfortable one for Rockies fans until the final out was recorded, but with the 10-8 win, Colorado moved to 3-4 in those seven games.

The teams traded blows in the first two innings with the Mets taking an early lead on a pair of singles and a pair of productive flyballs. The Rockies struck back for a couple of runs after a single by Charlie Blackmon, a double by Nolan Arenado, and a gift single off the bat of Trevor Story when left-fielder Brandon Nimmo lost the ball in the lights.  Story came in on an Ian Desmond RBI single through the right side.

But the Mets tied it up before recording an out, getting a double from Wilmer Flores and a single from Kevin Plawecki before Marquez could settle into his rhythm.

Colorado answered by tying their largest run-scoring inning of the season—a record they set just three days ago—by plating six runs in the bottom of the third.

It started innocuously enough with a Charlie Blackmon single that just skipped out of the reach of a diving Asdrubal Cabrera at second.

He came around when Nolan Arenado smashed what turned out to be the first of back-to-back-to-back home runs. Arenado’s go-ahead blast traveled 439 feet but was quickly outdone by Story’s shot also to left at 441 feet. Desmond’s capper just barely cleared the wall in right but counted just the same.

It was the first time since 2010 (Seth Smith, Carlos Gonzalez, Ryan Spilborghs) that the Rockies hit three consecutive home runs.

And the run scoring didn’t end there.

Chris Iannetta was hit by a pitch after Gonzalez grounded out to the pitcher, and he scored when Noel Cuevas narrowly missed hitting the fourth homer of the inning. Upon review, his RBI double off the top of the wall just in front of the foul pole in left, was upheld. He would come around to touch the plate, though, when Marquez got in on the action himself by lining a hard single to right.

Marquez is now hitting .280 in 15 games.

DJ LeMahieu and Blackmon followed Marquez’ hit with walks to load the bases, bringing Arenado to the plate for a chance at a six-RBI frame but he struck out and Story grounded out to third to put an end to the barrage.

The Rockies added yet another with yet another long ball, Gonzalez launching one through the rain-drenched skies, an opposite-field no-doubter, his seventh of the season to give his club a 9-2 lead.

The Mets got a couple of runs back in the fifth thanks to a couple of walks to Luis Guillorme and Nimmo. The former scored on a single by Cabrera and the latter came in on a sac fly to deep left from Michale Conforto to make it a 9-4 game.

Colorado plated their 10th run in the bottom of the fifth thanks to another Marquez single, a Blackmon walk, and an Arenado single up the middle.

Then it was bullpen time which meant things got immediately tense. Bryan Shaw was called upon to protect a six-run lead but immediately gave up a double to Plawecki and an RBI single to Jose Bautista. Be bounced back to strike out Amed Rosario but then—in a play that was eerily similar to his last collapse at Coors Field—Shaw got a weak grounder back to the mound but decided to try to attempt the incredibly difficult double play rather than just take the out at first, airmailing the throw into centerfield.

He proceeded to walk Cabrera to load the bases and force Bud Black to go to Chris Rusin. Rusin did his job to strike out Michael Conforto before Black employed a tactic we haven’t seen much, going right to Adam Ottavino.

On Otto’s first pitch, there seemed to be some sort of cross-up with catcher Chris Iannetta who whiffed on a pitch right down the middle for a passed ball that allowed the Mets sixth run to cross the plate.

Still with a pair of runners aboard, Ottavino hunkered down and got a weak grounder back to the mound from Frazier that he converted into an easy out to end the frame.

Ottavino stayed on for the eighth and struck out the side with what appeared to be relative ease.

Despite it not being a save situation, Black called upon closer Wade Davis. The command issues he displayed in Texas were clearly still with him in the first at-bat against Jose Reyes (greeted with a nice chorus of boos) that ended in a walk. He then caught a tough break on a slow bouncer to Arenado at third that the Gold-Glover couldn’t quite handle, unleashing a wild throw toward first that allowed both runners to advance.

Monday night’s hero, Nimmo, brought in a run on a groundout to second and Cabrera did the same with one to first to make it a 10-8 game and give Davis a clean set of basepaths.

Davis finally struck out Conforto to end the game and despite all the dramatics, give the Rockies the win.

Final Stats:

German Marquez: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K

Bryan Shaw: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 1 ER, BB

Chris Rusin: 0.1 IP, K

Adam Ottavino: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 3 K

Wade Davis: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 1 BB 

Nolan Arenado: 3-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR (14)

Ian Desmond: 2-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, HR (15)

Trevor Story: 2-for-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR (16)

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (7)

Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 BB

Chris Iannetta: 1-for-2, 1 R

Noel Cuevas: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI

German Marquez: 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI

What’s Next:

The third game of this four-game series is set for Wednesday night at 6:40 Mountain Time. Chad Bettis will face Seth Lugo.