DENVER – On paper, Friday night’s contest between the Colorado Rockies and the Seattle Mariners was set to be an odd one. Both clubs needed to reach into their depth and call up a pitcher to make the start.
For the Mariners, it was former-Rockie, Christian Bergman. For the Rox, it was the highly touted but still unpolished Jeff Hoffman.
Hoffman just barely handled the spot start better giving his team a chance to compete. And boy, did they ever.
Getting another offensive explosion and displaying dynamite defense that begs for an update to the “Coors Shield” moniker, the Rockies turned a tight contest into a blowout in a hurry. The Mariners got back in the game in the final few innings, but the home club held on for a 10-7 win.
Things got off to a rough start right away for Hoffman who gave up an infield single to one of the fastest men in the game, Dee Gordon, who just beat out a fantastic attempt from DJ LeMahieu at second. Then, in a perfectly-executed hit-and-run, Gordon took off for second, turning what would have been a ground ball double play off the bat of Jean Segura into a single to right field, easily allowing the runner to advance to third.
Hoffman, rightfully worried about the speed aboard, then unleashed a bad throw to first on a pickoff attempt, and Gordon was able to trot home, Segura to second.
Mitch Haniger followed with a more traditional single on a line drive to right, but even that just barely got over a leaping try from Ian Desmond at first, who deflected the baseball, and the Mariners took a 2-0 lead before recording an out.
The Rockies starter settled in, though, and got quick outs from Kyle Seager and Ryon Healy before finally being bailed out by LeMahieu who this time was able to convert his phenomenal effort into an out at first. That is, after a review confirmed as such and took a run off the board for Seattle.
Colorado got one back right away on a solo home run to deep center by Charlie Blackmon, his 19th round-tripper of the season.
They tied it in the second thanks to a leadoff double from Gerardo Parra, an opposite-field single by Ian Desmond and an RBI groundout from Wolters.
The Rockies made it three straight innings scoring a run with a two-out rally in the third to take the lead. Carlos Gonzalez drew a walk in front of Trevor Story’s 19th home run of the season, another deep fly over the wall in center, to give his club a 4-2 lead.
The Mariners struck back in the fourth. After a Ben Gamel single was erased on a pickoff from Wolters that included an entertaining pickle between first and second, Chris Herrmann tripled into the gap in left-center.
With one out and AL pitcher Christian Bergman at the plate, the Rockies brought the infield in but his groundball snuck just by a diving attempt from Story.
With that, manager Bud Black went to Harrison Musgrave, concluding Hoffman’s shaky but still effective spot start. Musgrave quickly retired Gordon and Segura to escape the inning with the lead still intact, thanks again to some excellent, heads-up defense.
Musgrave walked the first batter of the fifth got Seager to ground into a double play before Denard Span hit a weak ground ball to first.
Then the Rockies offense struck with fire and fury. Charlie Blackmon led off with a double to left then made a rare mistake when he took off for third on an Arenado groundball and was thrown out. That still didn’t stop the Rockies from their big inning.
Gonzalez lucked his way into a swinging bunt hit before Story flew out to deep right field. But Parra came through in the clutch, as he has done all year, singling to left to plate Arenado and give his team a 5-3 lead. Desmond followed that by shooting a single to right to score another and Wolters put the icing on the cake with a two-run single back up the middle and suddenly the Rockies held an 8-3 lead.
Colorado got two more in the sixth on a LeMahieu double, a CarGo single, and a two-RBI double from Story.
Musgrave stayed on for the seventh but appeared to be tiring after he got Gordon to ground out. He walked Segura and Haniger and surrendered a single to Seager before needing to be pulled in favor of Chris Rusin. Rusin threw just one pitch that Span lined into the gap in right-center field scoring a pair to bring the Mariners back within four.
Scott Oberg came on and struck out Healy but Ben Gamel managed to beat out a little bouncer over the mound for an infield hit that made it 10-7, Rockies. Oberg struck out Herrmann to end the inning.
Adam Ottavino pitched a clean eighth with two strikes out. Or, you could say, he ordered the usual.
The Rockies called upon their closer, Wade Davis, for the ninth. He worked a clean inning with a pair of strikeouts to secure the game.
Colorado improved to 49-45 and are 2.5 games out of first place in the NL West.
Trevor Story is only the second NL All-Star in history to enter the break with at least 67 RBI. Ernie Banks accomplished the feat twice.
Final Stats:
Jeff Hoffman: 3.1 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
Harrison Musgrave: 3 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 3 BB
Chris Rusin: 0.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER
Scott Oberg: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 K
Adam Ottavino: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 K
Trevor Story: 2-for-4, 1 R, 4 RBI HR (19)
Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI HR (19)
Carlos Gonzalez: 3-for-3, 3 R
Gerardo Parra: 2-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI
Ian Desmond: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI
Tony Wolters: 1-for-4, 3 RBI
What’s Next:
Game 2 takes place on Saturday with an unusually late start time of 7:10 Mountain Time. Wade LeBlanc takes on the returning Jon Gray.
