Rockies Offense Soars In Series Win Over Pirates

FOUL CALL – This is what a long week can do to a Strat manager.  The Rockies had Joey Ortiz injured in game 3 (+2 games), but then ran him out for game 4 (where he hit a homer but frankly wasn’t needed).  Alas.  Rockies will roll a new injury (x chart + 10 games) for Ortiz before the Padres series.  Not ideal, but on to the writeup!

GAME 1

Pirates – 6

Rockies – 3

Speaking of injuries, the Rocks would lose starter Rhett Lowder to a ROG injury in the 3rd inning, and Jason Kelenic (himself playing bc of a Tatis injury) for 8 games in the 4th inning.  By the time Kelenic got hurt, the Pirates were already in control.  They used a big 3-run homer by ex-Rockie Sam Hilliard in the 4th to post a 5-1 lead, and despite some 7th-inning pressure by the Rocks, they would not be in any real danger.

WP – Castillo  LP – E. Miller  SV – T. Miller  HR – Adames, Hilliard, Higashioka

GAME 2

Pirates – 3

Rockies – 6

Weirdness – this was actually the 3rd game in a row that the Rockies played where the score was 6-3.  Sort of a weird game too.  A Joc Pederson 2-run shot put the Rockies up 2-0 after the first.  Then each team would score exactly 1 run for the next 3 innings.  And then the bats for both teams would be almost totally silenced.  Rocks did get 3 homers in this one, and that was enough.

WP – Morton  LP – Lynn  SV - Jimenez    HR – Bellinger, Urshela, Pederson, Vientos, Garcia

GAME 3

Pirates – 8

Rockies – 11

The Pirates both outhit (12-10) and outhomered the Rockies here (4-1).  But, starter Freddy Peralta also issued 7 free passes in 4 innings, and it helped the Rocks grab a 9-4 lead.  The Pirates would always seem to be on the verge of striking back, but they never got a big inning and the Rocks prevailed.

WP – Farmer  LP – Peralta  HR – Hinds (2), Bohm, Chisholm, Vargas

GAME 4

Pirates – 3

Rockies – 10

The Rockies would pile on 13 hits and be up 8-1 after 5 innings.  We let up a few solo homers, but also struck out 12 Pirates and mostly kept the Pirates off the basepaths.

WP – Glasnow  LP – Schwellenbach   HR – Adames, Higashioka, Fraley, Mitchell, Ortiz

The Pirates hit the break at 20-24.  The Rockies are 18-22, with one series vs the Padres left to go!