Colorado Rockies Continue Offensive Surge, Pound Yankees

Make no mistake about it … Charlie Blackmon and the Colorado Rockies have rediscovered the long ball.

Blackmon blasted a pair of solo homers, Nolan Arenado connected on his MLB-leading 21st home run and the Rockies opened their two-game series against the New York Yankees with an 8-4 victory on Tuesday night inside Yankee Stadium.

“We got the offense rolling a little bit that last day in Miami and it carried over, especially with the power,” Colorado manager Walt Weiss said. “

Colorado’s leadoff hitter opened the game with a homer off the right field foul pole before the Yankees fans in right field could even finish chanting for New York right fielder Carlos Beltran. Three pitches in, Colorado led 1-0.

The Rockies offense continued to batter New York starter Ivan Nova, who gave up four straight hits to open the game and had the Yankees bullpen warming up before he could get out of the first inning. The right-hander saw Colorado post three runs before finally striking out Ryan Raburn to end the frame and keep the Rockies lead at 3-0.

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Nova would finally be pulled in the top of the fifth after giving up a leadoff double to CarGo and walking Trevor Story. The Yankees starter struggled throughout the night, surrendering six runs (five earned), eight hits and walking a pair of Rockies in four innings.

While Nova was struggling, Chad Bettis was keeping New York at bay. Maybe it wasn’t exactly the most dominating performance of his career, but it was enough to keep the Yankees from piecing together a big inning.

Bettis saw the Yankees put two runs up in the game’s first two innings … but neither run was earned. He committed an error in the first and DJ LeMahieu committed an un-DJ-like miscue in the second, helping the Yanks score both of their runs.

Bettis avoided trouble in the third with perhaps his finest inning of the night. After giving up a leadoff single to Brett Gardner to open the frame, Bettis struck out Beltran before freezing Alex Rodriguez with a beautiful breaking pitch. Brian McCann followed with a single before Bettis ended the threat by getting Starlin Castro to ground out.

The right-hander also worked some magic in the sixth, giving up a one-out single to Castro before Didi Gregorius hit a towering triple to center that just evaded Blackmon’s reach and caromed off the wall. With the Yankees fans suddenly revitalized, Bettis struck out Chase Headley and Aaron Hicks to squash New York’s momentum.

Those strikeouts were part of a career-high-tying eight for Bettis, who scattered eight hits during his 94-pitch performance.

Arenado paced the Colorado offense with a 3-for-4 night, finishing with three RBI, two of which came on a sixth-inning line-drive homer just inside the left-field foul pole.

“He clicks along,” Weiss said. “He’s a model of consistency and plays at a high level virtually every day on both sides of the ball.”

Next: The Top 5 Right-Handers in Colorado History

On Wednesday’s series finale matinee, Jon Gray (4-3, 4.55 ERA) takes the hill for the Colorado Rockies against New York’s CC Sabathia (5-4, 2.20 ERA).