Colorado Rockies Salvage Series On Sunday With Six Shutout Innings From Jorge De La Rosa

Aug 30, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Colorado Rockies starting pitcher J. De La Rosa (29) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates wrapped up their three-game series Sunday afternoon at PNC Park.

0. 4. 5. 108. Final

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Jorge De La Rosa threw six shutout innings, and the Colorado Rockies salvaged at least one game in the series by winning 5-0 on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Both Charlie Morton for the Pirates and Jorge De La Rosa for the Rockies matched up pretty well for the first few innings, with neither team being able to score off the opposing pitcher until the top of the fourth.

In that frame, Nolan Arenado doubled off Morton to score DJ LeMahieu, and then Ben Paulsen slugged a triple scoring Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, to make the game 3-0 in favor of the Rockies.

The Rockies gave De La Rosa two insurance runs in the top of the sixth, when Dustin Garneau hit a soft comeback to Morton with two runners on base. Morton, who initially dropped the comebacker trying to catch it, flipped it over his first baseman’s head and down the right field foul line, scoring both Paulsen and Daniel Descalso to make the game 5-0 in favor of the Rockies.

De La Rosa was phenomenal for six innings, giving up just four hits and a walk while striking out seven batters and throwing into the seventh inning, where he gave up a hit and a walk. He was ejected by home plate umpire Jeff Nelson after allowing the walk for complaining about balls and strikes, though Colorado Rockies’ manager Walt Weiss was out to replace De La Rosa as he was being ejected, anyways.

Scott Oberg worked out of the seventh inning jam with no damage done for the Rockies, keeping the five-run lead — and the shutout — intact through seven full innings.

Christian Friedrich came on to throw the eighth for Colorado, and got two quick outs before inducing a popup from Starling Marte to shallow right field. Gonzalez dropped the routine pop-up, putting Marte on second base with the error and perhaps getting Pittsburgh into a position to sneak back into the game with MVP candidate Andrew McCutchen up next.

But, Jairo Diaz came on to face McCutchen, and got him to fly out to left field to end the inning and keep the 5-0 lead intact. John Axford closed out the game with a perfect ninth inning.

The Colorado Rockies will now return home, facing the Arizona Diamondbacks for four games beginning Monday — including a day-night Tuesday doubleheader — and then the San Francisco Giants for four more games over next weekend at Coors Field.

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