Rockies wreck Phils on history making night

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies are not messing around.

After putting up double-digit runs in the first two games against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Rockies went even crazier on the night of a day in which they awoke to find themselves back in control of their own possibilities in both the Wild Card and division race.

On a day in which the St. Louis Cardinals lost, and with the crowd erupting throughout the game at each score for the Diamondbacks against the Dodgers, the Rockies scored an eye-popping 14 runs on 16 hits which almost covered up the historic nature of the performance they got from their starting pitcher.

German Marquez just began the game by making two different kinds of history. By striking out the first five batters of the game, he passed Ubaldo Jimenez for the most strikeouts in Rockies history with (at the time) 215. By striking out the next three, he tied the modern-day record for punchouts to begin a game.

That’s a heck of a way to start a ballgame that your team needs in the heat of a race for the pennant.

The Rockies backed that up by getting him an early run in the second thanks to a Trevor Story triple to right and a Carlos Gonzalez sac fly.

The Phillies got their first hit from Roman Quinn with two outs in the fourth on a single back up the middle. Dylan Cozens followed with another one through the right side and Philly got aggressive in sending the runner home but he was thrown out at the plate on a nice relay from Gonzalez to Story and an impressive pickup and tag from Tony Wolters at the plate.

Colorado’s offense rewarded that effort with another run. David Dahl led off the bottom of the fourth with a walk and moved up on a Nolan Arenado single to left. Story hit into a double play but Gonzalez salvaged the situation by ripping one to the right side and beating the pitcher to the mound for an RBI single.

Then the Rockies poured on a huge seven-run fifth inning, running away with things.

It began with a Wolters walk and a sac bunt for Marquez. Charlie Blackmon ground out to second, though, and it looked like the opportunity to get just one might be squandered. DJ LeMahieu kept the inning alive with a walk, though, before David Dahl leaned on one and hit an absolute rocket over the wall in center field for his third home runs in the last three days.

It was his 13th home run of the season and put the Rockies ahead 5-0 but they were not done yet.

Arenado followed by pulling a double down the left-field line before Trevor Story showed exactly why we have started to call him the “Concourse Kid” when he launched one 465 feet to left field for his 34th home run of the season.

Gonzalez legged out a double for his third straight good at-bat and Ian Desmond came through with the dagger, blasting the third multi-run homer of the inning for Colorado with a two-run shot to dead center. And that made it 9-0, Rockies.

They added another in the seventh when a pair of singles from Story and Desmond meant a groundout from Wolters could plate a run.

And they got four more in the eighth when Dahl reached on a two-out single before back-to-back pinch hits. The first came from Pat Valaika who specialized in that role a year ago, pulling a double down the left-field line. Raimel Tapia followed that by lining a triple into the gap in left-center field.

Drew Butera put the cherry on the sundae by ripping his first home run in a Rockies’ uniform to left to make it an astounding 14-0 lead.

Brian Shaw preserved the shutout in the ninth.

Colorado improved to 88-70 and await the final of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks to find out if they’ll be in first place in the NL West when they wake up on Thursday.

Final Stats:

German Marquez: 7 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 11 K

Seunghwan Oh: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Brian Shaw: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

David Dahl: 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI (HR: 13)

Trevor Story: 3-for-4, 3 R, 2 RBI (HR: 34)

Ian Desmond: 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI (HR: 21)

Carlos Gonzalez: 2-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI

What’s Next:

The Rockies play the Phillies in the final of four on Thursday afternoon. Antonio Senzatela gets a tough matchup in multiple time All-Star Jake Arrieta. First pitch at 1:10 Mountain Time.