Cactus League: Colorado Rockies win TWICE in one day

On Sunday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies pulled off the improbable – winning twice in one day. Well, not really. The Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks played twice in split-squad games. Colorado, obviously, came away with both victories by the final of 2-1 and 11-10 respectively.

The first game was essentially a pitchers duel, which featured Colorado’s hottest pitcher of late, Jordan Lyles. Lyles was spectacular, yielding just one run-one earned on three hits, issuing one walk while striking out four. Colorado’s bullpen, featuring Rafael Betancourt, Adam Ottavino, and LaTroy Hawkins came in and pitched three innings of scoreless ball, giving up zero hits.

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After trailing 1-0 coming via sac-fly (Gerald Laird), Colorado regulars Justin Morneau and Daniel Descalso each hit solo-home runs in the sixth and seventh inning respectively, pushing the Rockies to a 2-1 lead which ended up as the final.

Game two on the other hand was wild and wacky, needing ten innings to finish the deal. First off, have a day Matt McBride! McBride was featured in the three-hole and produced like a three-hitter should. The first baseman/outfielder finished the day going 3-for-4, hitting out a pair of home runs, including four RBI’s.

Christian Bergman pitched two innings of scoreless ball, then ran into a mess in the third. Bergman would get the hook after the inning, finishing the night with a stat-line as followed: 3.0 innings, eight hits, six runs-six earned, one walk and zero strikeouts. Not the kind of performance you would expect out of a guy battling for a rotation spot, but that’s baseball.

With the game all knotted up at ten apiece in the top half of the tenth, an unlikely hero emerged. Roberto Ramos scored the game-winning run on a solo home run off of RJ Hively.

The Colorado Rockies improved to 14-12 in Cactus League play with the two victories today. The team will be back in action tomorrow afternoon against the Oakland Athletics, where Eddie Butler is expected to make the start. Butler is currently battling for a spot in the starting rotation.