The Colorado Rockies have finally defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in a baseball game.
Getting a monkey off their back that has been there since the 2018 NLDS last October, Colorado was finally able to put up a sustained and at times explosive offensive effort, scoring 11 runs on 10 hits in the 11-4 win.
A two home-run night for Nolan Arenado was the exclamation point that made a few hiccups from the pitching to be made irrelevant.
Antonio Senzatela was by no means bad but he was inefficient. He battled the Brewers and his own command all game but never gave in and kept his team in the game. And a shaky moment for the bullpen became an afterthought with a couple of big late innings for the bats.
The Rockies struck with a big blast early, a first-inning three-run home run off the bat of Nolan Arenado, scoring Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story who drew back-to0back walks against Jacob Barnes to begin the game.
The Brewers answered though, with a home run of their own, but for just two runs. It was Eric Thames who delivered the flyball to center, scoring Eric Thames who had singled.
Senzatela settled in and didn’t see much in terms of a threat until the fourth when Travis Shaw came up with a leadoff double and Jesus Aguilar drew his second straight walk. But an overturned play at first base for the first out, a huge strikeout of Ryan Braun, and a beautiful play from Story to steal a hit from Lorenzo Cain got him out of the jam.
But his tepidness around the zone ran up his pitch count and Bud Black was forced to go to his bullpen in the fifth.
Mike Dunn came on and issues the cardinal sin in a leadoff walk to Thames. He bounced back to strike out Mike Moustakas but surrendered a single to Yasmani Grandal to put a pair aboard and bring Aguilar, who has been a monster all series (three home runs) to the plate.
Black went to Carlos Estevez who has excelled in these kinds of matchups of late and it looked like he may come all the way back to get Aguilar after falling behind 3-0 then running the count full, but he walked him anyway. It was still wise to be careful with the slugger and Estevez broke Ben Gamel’s bat in the ensuing encounter but he managed to bloop it to center, scoring a pair of runs to give Milwaukee a 4-3 lead.
It didn’t last long.
Colorado came right back in the sixth. Ryan McMahon broke a string of nine in a row retired by Brewers pitching when he walked after and Arenado strikeout. Desmond followed that with a hard groundball single through the right side that put runners at the corners with one away.
The Rockies caught a break when Corbin Burnes unleashed a wild pitch that allowed McMahon to score and Desmond to reach second. He ended up walking Raimel Tapia on four pitches. David Dahl pinch hit but struck out, and it looked like the visitors would have to settle for the tie but Tony Wolters – who looks like a new man at the plate in 2019 – came through with a grounder back up the middle, scoring Desmond and putting his club ahead 5-4.
Blackmon added another run on a line drive double to right before story finally flew out to end it the inning.
Seunghwan Oh worked a clean sixth and Bryan Shaw (who appears to be moving up the ladder a bit) faced the minimum in the seventh, walking Grandal but erasing him on a 4-5-3 (shift) double play.
Then the Rockies offense broke out again in the top of the eighth. Tapia got things started this time with a double into the gap in right, coming right after Desmond struck out looking at a pitch midway through the left-handed batter’s box.
Pinch-hitter Mark Reynolds followed with a walk during which Tapia swiped third for his first successful steal of the season. He came in on another good at-bat from Wolters, a sac fly to left and Blackmon was hit by a pitch in front of a monster home run for Story, way deep over the wall in right-center field.
Suddenly, the Rockies held a 10-4 lead.
Arenado made it 11-4 with a solo blast in the ninth to almost the exact same spot as his round-tripper in the first.
Stats
Antonio Senzatela: 4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K (4.03 ERA)
Mike Dunn: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K (7.27 ERA)
Carlos Estevez: 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K (4.73 ERA)
Seunghwan Oh: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K
Bryan Shaw: 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K
Scott Oberg: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB
Nolan Arenado: 3-for-5, 2 R, 4 RBI, (2 HR: 8)
Trevor Story: 1-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB (HR: 8)
Charlie Blackmon: 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB
Raimel Tapia: 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 BB
Ian Desmond: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 BB
Tony Wolters: 1-for-1, 2 RBI
What’s Next
Colorado aims for the series split with a Thursday day game, beginning in the morning for those back in Denver. Jon Gray faces off against Freddy Peralta. First pitch at 11:10 Mountain Time.
