Colorado Rockies Doomed by Posey’s Pair of Homers

There’s been a lot of talk this season about the new “Bridich Barrier” being built in right-center field at Coors Field. However, Buster Posey had no problem scaling the new wall twice on Saturday afternoon against the Colorado Rockies.

Posey hit a pair of three-run homers over the newly installed monolith, including an eighth-inning blast just after Colorado had rallied to take the lead, as the Giants stunned the Rockies with a 10-5 comeback win before 39,253 fans.

Along with Posey’s blast, San Francisco (31-20) poured it on in the eighth inning, with eight of the first nine batters recording base hits against Carlos Estevez, Gonzalez Germen and Justin Miller. The result? A six-run frame that evened the three-game series at 1-1 after Colorado’s win on Friday night.

After being held to one run by San Francisco’s Madison Bumgarner, Colorado (23-25) exploded against the Giants bullpen in the seventh. Eight Rockies went to the plate, including Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez. Arenado just missed a homer as he knocked a two-run double off the top of the Bridich Barrier and Gonzalez launched a 2-2 pitch over the center field wall to push the Rockies to a 5-4 lead.

It seemed like the Rockies were going to grab and keep the momentum, but the Giants answered swiftly and mercilessly with their eighth-inning onslaught.

Colorado had chances to score earlier in the game against San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner but simply couldn’t.

The Rockies wasted a golden opportunity in the sixth inning, loading the bases with no outs yet failing to push a run across.

After being held to four hits by Bumgarner through the first five innings, Colorado looked poised to chase the San Francisco ace off the mound in the sixth. Arenado and Gonzalez started the frame with singles and Mark Reynolds followed with a walk to load the bases as the Giants bullpen started activity.

That, however, would be the extent of the damage by the Colorado Rockies in the frame. Bumgarner struck out Ryan Raburn then coaxed Cristhian Adames into a double play to end the threat.

San Francisco jumped out to a quick first-inning lead against Colorado’s Eddie Butler. After Butler struck out Gregor Blanco to start the game, Joe Panik drew a walk before Butler plunked Matt Duffy with an 0-2 pitch. That set the stage for Posey to blast a 1-0 pitch over the elevated right-center wall for a 3-0 San Francisco lead.

After a leadoff double by Jarrett Parker in the top of the second, Bumgarner would help his own cause with a sacrifice fly to left, pushing the San Francisco lead to 4-0 heading into the bottom of the second.

Butler would settle down from there, however, allowing just two hits over the next three innings before he was pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth. He threw just 72 pitches, walking one and striking out four.

Colorado scored its only run against Bumgarner in the bottom of the fifth. Adames led off the inning with a triple to right-center and Charlie Blackmon brought him home with a one-out sacrifice fly to center.

Jorge De La Rosa came in in relief of Butler, making his first appearance out of the bullpen since being moved to reliever after a horrific outing in Boston. In his first relief outing since July 12, 2009, De La Rosa looked as if he might have trouble, allowing back-to-back singles in the sixth. However, the veteran southpaw used a double play to escape the jam.

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De La Rosa threw two innings, allowing just the pair of singles, and struck out one.

Colorado and San Francisco meet again in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at Coors Field.