Noah Spirek | @NoahSpirek | May 27, 2024
On a beautiful Memorial Day, the Rockies celebrated with some offensive fireworks. The Cleveland Guardians rolled into Coors Field with the best record in the American League and an MLB-best 9-game winning streak, but the Rockies put that dominant run to bed with an 8-6 victory.
Table of Contents
Game Story
Early on, it looked like the Guardians were on track to win their 10th consecutive contest. Scheduled Rockies starter LHP Austin Gomber was scratched with arm soreness, and rookie RHP Anthony Molina started in his place. It was Molina’s first start at the Major League level.
In the first inning, after a leadoff double from Tyler Freeman, José Ramírez brought him in with an RBI groundout. In the second, the Guardians loaded the bases on an erratic Molina. After a leadoff HBP to David Fry, Molina issued back-to-back walks to Kyle Manzardo and Will Brennan. He bounced back by inducing a run-scoring double play, but then another walk to Brayan Rocchio followed by a two-out RBI single by Tyler Freeman made it 3-0 Guardians and ended Molina’s day.
The Rockies responded in the second with a pair of two-out knocks. After a Brenton Doyle single, Sean Bouchard lined an RBI double over the head of the Guardians’ right fielder to cut the deficit to 3-1 Cleveland. However, the Guardians answered right away with a run in the third, regaining their three run advantage, 4-1.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Rockies offense flipped a three-run deficit into a three-run lead with a bit of small ball followed by a big fly. Similar to how the Guardians scored their runs in the second, the Rockies loaded the bases with one out on walks from Elias Díaz and Brenton Doyle with a Brendan Rodgers single sandwiched in between. The Rox picked up a run on an error by the Guardians, with Bouchard getting credit for an RBI.
Following Bouchard, Elehuris Montero laced a single to center field, knotting the game at 4 apiece. The big blow in the inning came on a Charlie Blackmon blast. He mashed a 1-2 curveball from Guardians starter Xzavion Curry 389 feet for his second homer of the year. The three-run blast gave the Rockies a 7-4 advantage.
The rest of the way, the Rockies added an eighth run on a Blackmon RBI double, and the Guardians scored once in both the 7th and 9th inning on RBI hits from José Ramírez and Andrés Giménez, respectively. With the 8-6 win, Colorado walked away victorious for the third time in four games on this six-game homestand.
The key to the win was the work by Josh Rogers. The lefty was called up by the Rockies earlier today, and in his Colorado debut, he earned the win. With the Rockies trailing 3-0 in the second, Rogers settled the game down by pitching five innings and only allowing two runs. He gave the Rockies a chance to win by not letting the deficit get out of hand, and the Rockies rewarded him with a great offensive performance.
“He’s been in the big leagues before [with the Nationals], it’s been a while. But getting to know him last year, he’s a left-handed feel-to-pitch pitcher,” Bud Black said when asked about Rogers. “Spots the fastball at 90, [has a] couple different types of breaking balls, a changeup, [he] pitches on the attack… He was the key to the game.”
Quotes
Bud Black on Charlie Blackmon: “He comes every day prepared. As routine-oriented as anybody I’ve ever been around, and he’s all about competing to win the game doing his part to help us win.”
Austin Gomber on being a scratch today: “I felt like I would’ve probably been at like 85% today, which like I said I’ve taken the ball with less. I just felt like… where we’re at right now still being May, it’d probably be smarter to just buy a couple days instead of going out and pitching today then maybe this is something that lingers on for a month.”
Bud Black on Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings: “I think ‘Ellie’ is our primary catcher but we feel good about Jacob… At this point for us [Jacob] knows his role, is a guy to pick up Ellie, or at times they both play. There’s a chance, come Wednesday, they both might play against a left-handed starter. But, Jacob, he’s a pro and he’s a lot like Chuck, he comes ready to play every day… We feel good when either one of them start.”
Notes
This season, the Rockies are 12-9 against teams with winning records, but just 7-25 against teams under .500.
Brenton Doyle extended his on-base streak to 17 games with his 2nd inning single.
Jalen Beeks secured the save today for Colorado, his fifth of the season, following the save by Tyler Kinley in yesterday’s 5-2 win over the Phillies. It is just the third time this season that Colorado’s staff has recorded saves in back-to-back games, with the first two occurrences both coming on a three-game save streak from May 12 through May 14.
What’s Next for the Colorado Rockies?
Tomorrow, the Guardians and Rockies will play Game 2 of their three-game series at 6:40 MT. Probable starters are RHP Triston McKenzie (2-3, 3.44 ERA) for Cleveland and RHP Ryan Feltner (1-4, 5.07 ERA) for Colorado.
Get yesterday’s recap here.
Story by Noah Spirek
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