DENVER – The Colorado Rockies bullpen threw four-and-a-third scoreless innings and nabbed big two-run hits from Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado to push past the Milwaukee Brewers 8-4.
The Brewers rolled into Denver desperately needing to make up ground in the NL Wildcard race in which the Rockies control a spot to dance. The Rockies, on the other hand, were coming off of a disappointing series against Atlanta.
Milwaukee may have played a bit too tight as mistakes cost them and the Rockies capitalized with just their second offensive bust out in the past 10 days.
Marquez rolled through a 1-2-3 first on 17 pitches and just as quick as Marquez dealt the Rockies were on the board. Charlie Blackmon went deep in Colorado’s first plate appearance of the night sparking the Rockies to a 1-0 lead.
The home nine quickly lost that lead as Domingo Santana went bingo into the bullpen with a one run blast. Marquez worked around some more traffic in the second but he couldn’t work around a leadoff triple to Eric Thames in the third.
But Marquez’ bat soon made up for his arm. A double started a three run third for the Rockies where threes would be wild. Arenado cashed in on two with a three bagger then Mark Reynolds brought around Arenado to tally three.
The third inning was just the beginning of an offensive uptick.
The fourth inning saw some Brew Crew mistakes lead to a fifth Rockies run this time in the unearned variety. Gonzalez scored on a Travis Shaw error.
The fifth inning was led off by an Arenado bomb that one-hopped it’s way out of Coors Field, except it was foul. Arenado lined out to right but Gerardo Parra made quick work of the next AB homering, fair this time for the Rockies pushing the lead to four. Reynolds then struck out but ran his way to first on a wild pitch and CarGo came through on an opposite field blast, his eighth of the season. The Rockies at this point were up 8-2 and had chased Matt Garza from the game, it looked like the fat lady had started to do some vocal exercises.
Not so fast my friend as the Brewers blasted two in back to back fashion to force Marquez from the game and to soften the lead to four in sixth. Mike Dunn got out of it then Jake McGee came in and provided a scoreless seventh.
McGee trekked into the eighth where he got the first out and Pat Neshek nailed down the next two and Greg Holland finished it off in the ninth.
