There was nothing that felt normal about the Colorado Rockies second of three against the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday night.
The game didn’t begin until 9:18pm after a three hour and eight minute weather delay featuring heavy lightning and rain. The after effects made for some questionable defense from both teams and a slew of triples.
The back-and-forth affair eventually took a dramatic turn in favor of the Reds with a late 10-run explosion across the sixth and seventh innings, leading to a 17-9 loss for the home team.
Charlie Blackmon got things started with a bit of good fortune when a broken-bat grounder skipped away from the shift on the left side for a single. He then made a smart base running play on a deep flyball out to left off the bat of Trevor Story. Knowing it wouldn’t be a comfortable play to make the catch an throw, Blackmon tagged up and moved to second.
That allowed him to score the first run of the game on a David Dahl single through the right side. Nolan Arenado followed that up by obliterating a baseball left in the middle of the zone and launched it over the wall in left for his 21st home run of the season, becoming the first player to land a ball into the UCHealth “Hit the Mitt” tarp.
Daniel Murphy kept it going with a double off the wall in right and Raimel Tapia plated him on a single to left to make it 4-0 before the Rockies finished the first frame.
The Reds got right back into it in a second inning filled with bad bounces for Freeland. Yasiel Puig started it with a swinging bunt up the third baseline that not even Arenado could make a play on. Phillip Ervin then came up with one of the most unlikely hits of the year, a bloop jam-job that somehow landed just out of the reach of either the first or second baseman.
Freeland got Jose Iglesias to hit a grounder right back to the mound which, in better conditions, might have been a double or even triple play but he double clutched on the throw to third an Arenado slipped a bit on the throw back across the diamond and the Rockies got just one run.
That hurt when Jose Peraza produced the third weakly-hit single of the game, scoring Puig and moving Ervin to third. Another run came in on a sac fly before Freeland put the inning away with a strikeout of his counterpart.
Nick Senzel finally got a hard hit ball against Freeland by ripping a line drive to left that Tapia chased down with a good route and jumped to get leather on the ball but couldn’t catch it. In the time it took to turn and retrieve the ball, Senzel cruised into third with a triple. He scored on a Joey Votto single through the left side. And Votto was able to race all the way around the bases on a double from Ervin into the left-center field gap, tying the game at 4-4.
Colorado took the lead right back with their first two batters in the bottom half. Dahl doubled off the wall in left and Arenado singled just inside the first base bag. Murphy added another hit to keep the pressure on but Tapia flew out and Ryan McMahon hit into an inning-ending double play, preventing any further damage.
That missed opportunity became the Reds chance to come right back again and tie the game in the top of the fourth. Peraza hit one hard the other way high off the wall in front of the Rockies bullpen. Blackmon misplayed it off the wall, allowing another triple. He came home with ease on a ground out to short by Casali, tying the game once more at 5-5.
The Rockies took one half-inning off from countering before Story blasted his 20th home run of the season deep to left at 447 feet. Murphy added one that just barely got out to left, making it 7-5.
But after pitching a clean inning in the fifth, reliever Chad Bettis came unglued in the sixth. A pair of singles to right field for Peraza and Casali set up Derek Dietrich to slice a three-run homer just inside the left-field foul pole to swing the game back in favor of Cincinnati.
He then surrendered the fifth triple of the game for the Reds to Eugenio Suarez before Jairo Diaz came on and gave up a two-run shot to Puig giving the visitors a 10-7 advantage after a five-run inning.
Of course, the Rockies retaliated right away. Garrett Hampson led off the bottom of the sixth by drawing a walk and he stole second with ease. He came around to score on a ball that Blackmon hit off the wall in right. He hit it so hard it might’ve only been a single but Puig threw the ball wildly back to the infield and it hopped into the stands, allowing Charlie to get all the way to third.
He was plated on a ground out from Dahl to bring the Rox to back within one at 10-9.
Jake McGee came on for the seventh and promptly gave up a no-doubt homer to Casali on a line drive to left. He bounced back to get a ground out but walked Senzel and got bit by a blooper that fell in front of Tapia for a double. He then walked Suarez to load the bases and gave up another double to Puig to right, scoring two more.
Carlos Estevez entered the game and gave up a single through a pulled-in infield, plating another pair to make it 15-9, Reds. It was their second consecutive five-run inning.
Cincinnati added another pair of runs in the ninth against Bryan Shaw to make the final score 17-9.
