Rockies walk off on Giants in extras

DENVER – With news breaking just before the start of Monday night’s game that Adam Ottavino will need a DL stint, Colorado Rockies starter Chad Bettis knew he was going to need to give his club some length.

He battled but he wasn’t sharp in the game, giving up baserunners early and often, ultimately surrendering five runs over six innings. As it turned out, that would be just barely enough as the Rockies offense would fight back, getting the win in extras on a walk-off single from Chris Iannetta.

Bettis was bitten in the first by some bad luck and execution. It started when Gorkys Hernandez hit a pop-up on the infield that landed in no-man’s land between first, second, and the mound, going down as a single. Then Buster Posey reached on a more traditional single through the right side, but even that likely would have been an out if the first baseman wasn’t needed to hold the runner on.

Bettis made outs of Andrew McCutchen and Brandon Belt, but with two down, he grooved a pitch to Evan Longoria that the former Tampa Bay great lined into the left-center field gap, scoring a pair to give the Giants an early advantage.

That advantage was about as short-lived as one can get, the Rockies striking back immediately with a single from Noel Cuevas, a four-pitch walk by Nolan Arenado, and a three-run blast off the bat of Trevor Story. It was his team-leading 11th home run and 38th RBI of the season.

Both clubs took the second off from scoring before trading blows again in the third.

Hernandez tied the game with a solo home run to lead off the frame, his sixth of the year, on a deep fly to left. Bettis remained in trouble after a single for McCutchen and an incredibly rare error by Arenado but escaped the jam by inducing a double play with some nifty glove work at second by Ryan McMahon before getting the final ground ball out to end the inning with the game still tied.

Story started the rally for the Rockies by forcing an error on Longoria to reach base, advancing to second on Carlos Gonzalez’ fifth hit in six at-bats, a hard grounder up the middle left-on-left. Ian Desmond then hit one to almost the same exact spot and Story sprinted home from second to make it 4-3, Rockies.

Longoria struck again in the sixth with a double to the same spot he hit it in the first, scoring Belt to tie the game. And this time Bettis was unable to escape a jam that followed, surrendering a two-out pinch-hit single to Pablo Sandoval through the left side of the infield that scored another run to give the Giants a 5-4 lead.

Once again, the Rockies shortstop was right in the middle of getting the Rockies back in the game, scorching a screaming line drive up the middle to start the eighth. He moved to third on Gonzalez’ second hit in the game and scored the tying run on a nice piece of hitting from Desmond who took an 0-2 pitch below the zone and lifted it into right field for the sac fly.

Wade Davis came on in the ninth and got two quick outs then surrendered a controversial walk to Hernandez on a pitch that appeared to be a strike. Things then got even more tense when he walked McCutchen and plunked Longoria. But he kept his composure and got Belt to hit a soft liner to second to end the threat with the game still tied.

Colorado got a pinch-hit single from David Dahl in the bottom of the ninth but Blackmon and Cuevas were unable to cash him in.

It looked like the game was going to slip away in the top of the 10th when the struggling Bryan Shaw gave up back-to-back singles to Longoria and Brandon Crawford. But he was able to wriggle out of it, getting some help from Desmond and Arenado on defense to cut down the lead runner, allowing Shaw to record two more soft groundouts.

Arenado led off the 10th with a walk and took second on a deep drive out by Story. CarGo was intentionally walked and Desmond delivered a huge single to right to set up Iannetta’s heroics.

Until the game-winner, Iannetta was the only member of the club not to reach base.

Final Stats:

Chad Bettis: 6 IP, 10 H, 5 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Harrison Musgrave: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER 1 K

Wade Davis: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB

Bryan Shaw: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 ER

Trevor Story: 2-for-4, 3 R, 3 RBI, HR (11)

Ian Desmond: 1-for-2, 2 RBI

Nolan Arenado: 0-for-3, R, 2 BB

Noel Cuevas: 1-for-5, R

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-4

What’s Next:

Game 2 of the series will see Jeff Samardzija face off against the Rockies hottest pitcher, Kyle Freeland. The Tuesday night affair kicks off at 6:40 Mountain Time.