Iannetta, Fowler lead Rockies’ offensive surge
The Colorado Rockies scored in five different innings, including multiple runs in four of the five, and took the third game of their four-game series with the Washington Nationals, 15-7.
The Rockies scored four runs in the third inning, the first on a throwing error by Nationals starting pitcher Livan Hernandez, who fielded a sacrifice bunt attempt by Eric Young Jr. and, after thinking briefly of throwing to third to try and get Chris Iannetta, who started the inning with a single, threw off-balance and wild to first base. Iannetta scored, Jhoulys Chacin, who was hit by a pitch, moved up to third and Young went to second. Both Chacin and Young scored on a triple by Dexter Fowler and Troy Tulowtizki produced a fourth run, scoring Young with a sacrifice fly.
After giving back a pair of runs in the fourth, the Rockies responded with five more, started with a home run by Ty Wigginton to lead off the inning and another by Iannetta with one out. Five of the next six hitters singled, and the Rockies added three more runs in the inning, one on a wild pitch by Hernandez.
The Rockies were up 9-2 after four and added a run in sixth, three in the seventh and two in the eighth, insurance that made the night easier for the Rockies as their pitching struggled at times.
Chacin allowed allowed five hits and five walks in his five innings, pitching out of trouble in the fourth and fifth innings and allowing just three runs despite facing 13 batters combined in the two innings. Greg Reynolds followed and, after getting the first two hitters in the sixth, allowed five consecutive hits, including a two-run home run by Rick Ankiel and back-to-back doubles to close to within 9-7, the closest the Nationals would get as the final three Rockies relievers — Matt Belisle, Rafael Betancourt and Rex Brothers — kept things relatively quiet.
All but one Rockies starter had at least one hit — only Chris Nelson came up empty. Iannetta was 4-for-5, the second straight multihit game for Iannetta, who has raised his batting average 19 points in the two games to .245. Tulowitzki was 3-for-3 and drove in three. Dexter Fowler drove in a career high four runs.
Who takes Nicasio’s turn?
Greg Reynolds is the obvious answer since he’s the guy they called up, but please, no. I vote for Friedrich. Has he shown he’s ready? No. He’s nearing the point this year where they’re going to cut him off so as not to increase his innings load too much over last year. So he’s unlikely to pitch much in a September call-up. And he can’t be as bad as Reynolds. So I say give him a shot to make a few starts in August.
Fowler has really played well since his call-up. I hope they settle down and let him play CF until someone clearly better than him shows up. And we don’t have such a player on the horizon now.
We were sitting 2 rows behind the guy who caught Iannetta’s HR. It was a nifty catch; he just held up his glove and snagged it. Then Alana came and interviewed him. I’m looking forward to watching it again on TiVo.
It was al all around awesome night to be at the park. It was warm, great crowd, and Rockies win! Today we break the Sumday curse.