The Rockies are hot and the whole team is contributing. After another win Saturday afternoon, the Rockies have won seven in a row and won yet another road series, this time against the 2016 world champions. They still have another game to go on Sunday, but regardless of the outcome, the Rockies have had a successful week.
With nine runs on Sunday and a great start by Jeff Hoffman, the Rockies are now 18 games over .500. A big day from Mark Reynolds at the plate contributed to most of the offense, but all of the Rockies had hits on the day, aside from Hoffman.
The scoring started early with a couple of RBI doubles in the first. DJ LeMahieu drove in the first run, and Mark Reynolds followed that up with his own RBI double. It took until the fourth for the Rockies to score again, this time coming from a Reynolds solo homer.
The Rockies scored one more run for Hoffman, an absolute bomb by Blackmon that left Wrigley, much like Reynolds. With those two both homering and earning RBI, they are now tied for second with the RBI lead. Having two players that high on the leaderboard means you are scoring a lot of runs, especially when other players are driving in runs as well.
On the pitching side of things, Hoffman was terrific once again. With Jon Gray as an emerging ace, Hoffman is making a name for himself as a potential ace as well. Along with the other rookies on the staff, the Rockies’ rotation is filled with tons of potential.
Hoffman pitched 6.1 innings while allowing only one run. He started to run into trouble in the seventh, but Bud Black brought in Qualls who closed the inning out with a double play. Hoffman struck out eight, another showing of how strong he is and has an ERA of 2.33.
This was a much better game than yesterday’s win, with a better offensive showing and more control from the pitchers. With a big ninth inning, the Rockies didn’t need to bring in a closer, who on this day was going to be Adam Ottavino.
The five runs in the ninth came from a bases clearing double by Nolan Arenado, a wild pitch, and an RBI single by Ian Desmond. It was a big ninth inning and gave the Rockies the “Jug Runs” that Bud Black likes to see.
With a win on Sunday, the Rockies can take a sweep of the Cubs and finish the week with no losses. Unfortunately the Dodgers and Dbacks are still playing terrific baseball so the Rockies have not had much of a chance to extend their division lead. But what good teams do is hold off the second and third place teams in their division and if the Rockies have to do that all year, then so be it.
A Mile Higher Baseball 