DENVER – For the Colorado Rockies to win their first ever National League West title, they were going to need at least one star-caliber player to step up in the final month and be the driving force that reinforces their remarkable starting pitching.
With Charlie Blackmon having a bit of a down year (though still very good) and Nolan Arenado mired in a bit of a slump (also still very good) it appears as though that player is going to be shortstop Trevor Story.
Already putting together a (forgive me) storybook season—making his first All-Star Game, setting new career highs in batting average, homers, and stolen bases—he put together the most incredible offensive game of his young career Wednesday night, powering the Rockies to a 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants with three literally and metaphorically massive home runs.
His first home run swung a deficit to a lead. His second tied the game. His third put his club back on top, breaking the tie he created. His 29th, 30th, and 31st homers of the season traveled a combined 1,380 feet of home run.
He is slashing .342/.379/.651 over 76 games played since June 8.
Starter Antonio Senzatela did his part with a fine start, going five innings and giving up three runs, keeping his team in the game. They will take that from their fifth spot if they can get it the rest of the season, especially if the top three spots continue to perform as they have.
The Giants got their token first-inning run against Rockies pitching with a couple of dinky dunky bloop hits from Joe Panik and Alen Hansen, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Senzatela got Evan Longoria to ground into a double play that brought in the first run of the game.
He remained in some trouble after a few more weakly hit singles from Brandon Belt and Austin Slater but worked out of the jam by getting Chris Shaw to fly out to right.
The Rockies came right back to take the lead in the bottom of the first. DJ LeMahieu lined one hard into the right-center field gap, making an instantaneous decision to round second and leg out a triple. That made it easy for him to trot home with the tying run on a Nolan Arenado sac fly to left.
What happened next was a single play that included two things this writer has simply never seen before. Story hitting a go-ahead solo home run was nothing shocking but the way he did it boggles the mind. He appeared to swing with such force that it caused him to lose his footing, falling onto his backside in what might have been his ugliest swing of the season… if he missed.
He did not miss.
He absolutely clobbered the baseball for a 459-foot homer that bounced onto the concourse beyond the bleachers in left and one-hopped into the parking lot. It was the first time I have ever seen an in-game home run leave the building at Coors Field. Much of that has to do with the brick walls that line up on the back wall of the concourse, giving a few narrow windows to hit into. But Story found one of those windows with one of the more unusual swings and results of the year.
The Giants were able to tie it up in the third on an Evan Longoria double to right and a Slater single that snuck just past a diving Ian Desmond at first base.
They took the lead in the fourth when Aramis Ramirez turned around a fastball and belted it into the front row in left-center field.
But that only lasted until the next Story at-bat where, somehow, he outdid his first one.
In a 1-1 count, Suarez tried to come low and in again and got crushed for it again. This time, there was no awkwardness to the swing but instead mere perfection. The star shortstop unloaded on the baseball as much as anyone has in recent memory, blasting a 505-foot (not a typo) home run for his second straight time reaching the left-field concourse.
It was the longest home run in Coors Field and Rockies history and the longest hit by anyone anywhere in the StatCast era that goes back to 2015.
And he wasn’t done yet.
On the very next pitch he saw, Story gave his team the lead (again) with his third straight home run. This one just barely cleared the fence at 416 feet, also to left.
The Rockies added an insurance run in the seventh with a leadoff double from Carlos Gonzalez who was eventually plated on a two-out single up the middle from DJ LeMahieu.
The bullpen did not allow a baserunner.
Harrison Musgrave pitched an inning and a third while striking out two. Yency Almonte finished where Musgrave left off, getting the last two batters of the seventh in order with a strikeout. Scott Oberg worked a clean eighth with a pair of punchouts.
And Adam Ottavino came on in the ninth and went 1-2-3 with a strikout, his 100th of the season and earning his sixth save.
Colorado improves to 77-62 and reminas in first place in the NL West.
Final Stats:
Antonio Senzatela: 5 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 K
Harrison Musgrave: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Yency Almonte: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
Scott Oberg: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Adam Ottavino: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K (S: 6)
Trevor Story: 3-for-4, 3 R, 3 RBI (3 HR: 31)
DJ LeMahieu: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI
What’s Next:
After an off day, the Rockies begin a huge series with the Los Angeles Dodgers who they are battling for the NL West. In the first game, Jon Gray will face off against Clayton Kershaw, a match-up the Gray Wolf has excelled in before. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.
