Rockies offense explodes to route Reds for series win

DENVER – For the Colorado Rockies, the 2018 season has been a tale of winning close, low-scoring games on the strength of their pitching and defense.

The offense has famously been in a year-long slump, with every single hitter in the lineup performing under their career numbers.

Those struggles have been especially pronounced at home but on Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after losing in heartbreaking fashion, the Rockies took out some frustration, plating eight runs on 14 hits, including four home runs, to route the Reds by a score of 8-2 and win the series.

Another remarkably strong performance from starting pitcher German Marquez made this one of Colorado’s most complete wins of the season.

Cincinnati got to Marquez in the first with a pair of doubles from Joey Votto and Scooter Gennett (his sixth straight hit) to take an early 1-0 lead that did not last long.

Continuing his excellent stretch at the plate since coming home to Coors Field, David Dahl blasted the first pitch he saw on the day into the second deck in right field, tying the game with his third homer of the season. It looked an awful lot like the type of home runs Rockies fans have gotten used to seeing from Carlos Gonzalez over the years; a towering no-doubter.

After a Nolan Arenado single, CarGo himself decided he needed to one-up the youngster, showing how the original does it with a two-run moonshot that landed in the third deck, 461 feet away from home plate. It was the 1,300th hit of his career.

For your viewing enjoyment:

Just watch this thing of beauty. ? pic.twitter.com/16rUmIrG1s

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 27, 2018

The Rockies saw an opportunity to add a run in the fourth, getting a lead-off double from Ryan McMahon. A groundball to second off the bat of Tony Wolters moved McMahon to third but Marquez was unable to get his grounder through a pulled-in infield and Charlie Blackmon struck out looking to strand the runner at third.

They missed another one in the fifth, getting two-out singles from Trevor Story and Gonzalez—his third hit in the game—and a walk from Ian Desmond to load the bases. But McMahon grounded out to first, leaving ’em loaded.

But they finally broke through with a quality situational at-bat from Blackmon in the sixth, shooting a single through the left side of the infield on a measured contact approach, scoring Wolters who had singled and moved up on a sac bunt from Marquez. Arenado followed with his 10th home run of the year on a long fly ball deep over the wall in left-center field.

The route was officially on when CarGo’s fourth hit of the game set the stage for Desmond’s ninth home run of the season (Colorado’s fourth in the game) putting the Rockies ahead 8-1.

It looked for a moment like a tough appearance from Mike Dunn in the eighth might get the Reds back in the game, walking a pair around a single to load the bases with nobody out. He did strike out Gennett on three pitches before giving way to Adam Ottavino who induced an inning-ending double play.

And again in the ninth, Brooks Pounders loaded the bases on a trio of singles, then uncorked a wild pitch to bring in the Reds second run of the game. Then he issued a walk to load the bases again, needing to depart for Wade Davis who threw one pitch that was hit on a line right back to him. He caught it and tossed over to third, making this the second game in the series that ended on a line-drive double play.

Final Stats:

German Marquez: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6 K

Mike Dunn: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, K

Adam Ottavino: 0.2 IP

Brooke Pounders: 0.1, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB

Wade Davis: 0.2 IP

Carlos Gonzalez: 4-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (5)

Nolan Arenado: 2-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, HR (9)

Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI

David Dahl: 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (3)

Ian Desmond: 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, BB, HR (9)

What’s Next:

It’s time for more divisional baseball as the San Francisco Giants come to Denver to begin a three-game series on Monday evening. Chad Bettis will square off against lefty Andrew Suarez. First pitch at 5:10 Mountain Time.