Hector Sanchez’s Grand Slam Lifts The San Francisco Giants Past The Colorado Rockies In Extras
By Andrew Dill
Apr 23, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies short stop Troy Tulowitzki (2) celebrates with catcher Wilin Rosario (20) after a two run home run in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
The Colorado Rockies appeared to be on their way in sweeping the San Francisco Giants Wednesday afternoon, but the pitching faltered once again.
Troy Tulowitzki got the Rockies’ bats going in the first inning, homering to left center while scoring Charlie Blackmon to put the Rox up early, 2-0. After a Michael Morse solo-shot in the second, Colorado continued to add-on the runs. A couple of RBI ground outs from Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado pushed Colorado’s lead to three, while Troy Tulowitzki would add an RBI single in the second to put the Rockies up 5-1.
The third inning was tough for Rockies’ starter Tyler Chatwood who was cruising at that point. He would give up a solo home run to Brandon Hicks while giving up a three-run jack in the same inning to Michael Morse to tie the ballgame up at five apiece. Charlie Blackmon who is absolutely taking the league by storm, hit a solo-shot of his own in the bottom half of the fourth to regain the lead for Colorado, 6-5.
Tyler Chatwood’s afternoon would be done after six innings pitched, giving up seven hits, five runs, five earned, four walks, and five strikeouts. His main problem was he was overthrowing at one point due to the lack of command. He was up 0-2 on Hunter Pence and would throw a 97-MPH fastball way outside. Colorado would elect to bring in Rex Brothers in the seventh, which didn’t go as planned.
Brothers bounced back the night before with a strong effort, but has been struggling of late and today was no different. After getting the leadoff hitter to ground out, Brothers would walk Hunter Pence bringing up Brandon Belt. Belt would crush the Brothers offering over the fence in right giving the Giants their first lead of the afternoon, 7-6. Colorado would respond in the bottom half of the seventh as third baseman Nolan Arenado (extended his hitting streak to 14-games) would double to deep right to plate Blackmon, tying the score at seven.
After a shaky performance by Brothers, Walt Weiss went with righty Matt Belisle who has also struggled this season. Like Brothers, today would be no different for Matt. The very first batter he faced was Hector Sanchez, who would homer to right to collect the lead right back for the Giants, 8-7. Belisle would have to work out of a jam after giving up a ground-rule double to Brandon Hicks, getting Gregor Blanco to line out to center to end the top half of the eighth.
The Rockies weren’t finished on the offensive end either as DJ LeMahieu began the bottom half of the eighth with a lead-off single. Charlie Culberson who would pinch hit for Belisle, would lay down a sacrifice bunt to move DJ over to second. Colorado would receive a break as Bob Davidson (third base ump) would call out Santiago Casilla on a balk, advancing DJ to third with one out. Charlie Blackmon would get the job down, grounding out to second with the infield in to plate DJ, tying the game up at eight.
Moving ahead to the top of the 11th inning, Chad Bettis would come into the game for Colorado and his outing didn’t go as planned. Chad would give up a lead-off single to Hunter Pence, followed by a full-count walk to Brandon Belt. Juan Perez came in and put down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners to second and third with one out. Colorado would then intentionally walk Joaquin Arias to load the bases for the double-play possibility. It didn’t pay off as Hector Sanchez would hit a grand-slam for his second home run of the game, pushing the Giants lead to 12-8.
Colorado was down to their last three outs as Sergio Romo came in to close out the game in a non-save situation. Troy Tulowitzki led of the inning with a single as Justin Morneau came up to bat. Morneau would send the Romo offering over right-field porch for a home run, bringing the deficit to within two, but the Rockies couldn’t get anything going after that. Colorado failed to sweep San Francisco, but they would take two out of three games from the division rival, falling 12-10 in eleven innings.
Notable Rockies Hitters:
- Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-5, HR, 4 R, 3 RBI.
- Troy Tulowitzki: 3-for-5, HR, 2 R, 3 RBI.
- Justin Morneau: 2-for-6, HR, 2 RBI.
- DJ LeMahieu: 3-for-5, 2 R.
Rockies Pitchers:
- Tyler Chatwood: 6.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO. 100 pitches, 53 strikes.
- Rex Brothers (B, 2): 1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO.
- Matt Belisle: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER.
- LaTroy Hawkins: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 SO.
- Boone Logan: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 SO.
- Chad Bettis (L, 0-1): 1.0 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB.
The Colorado Rockies (12-10) take two out of three from the Giants as they finished the homestand going 4-2. They hit the road Friday night as they take on the Los Angeles Dodgers. Colorado’s Jordan Lyles will go up against Josh Beckett (Dodgers). First-pitch is scheduled for 10:10 PM ET, 8:10 PM MT.