Chad Bettis, Dustin Garneau Lead Colorado Rockies To Victory In Seattle

Sep 11, 2015; Seattle, WA, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher

Chad Bettis

(35) throws against the Seattle Mariners during the first inning at Safeco Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners met for the first of three interleague games on Friday night at Safeco Field in the Pacific Northwest. 

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The Colorado Rockies relied on a great start from Chad Bettis, and bullpen work that was just good enough in addition to an important three-run home run from catcher Dustin Garneau to win game one of their three game series 4-2 over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night at Safeco Field.

Chad Bettis was incredible for the Colorado Rockies on this day, going seven shut out innings while allowing just three hits and three walks. He struck out six Mariners in his seven innings of work, lowering his ERA to 4.59 and throwing 56 of his 98 pitches for strikes.

The Rockies helped Bettis out in the top of the seventh, after being stymied for six innings by Hisashi Iwakuma and the Seattle Mariners. In that seventh inning, though, the Rox knocked five straight hits off Iwakuma, chasing him from the game.

The highlight of those hits was a three-run bomb by catcher Dustin Garneau — the second of his career — to break through for the Colorado Rockies and give the visitors a 3-0 lead.

That lead was relatively short-lived, though, as Christian Friedrich came in for the bottom of the eighth and promptly allowed a walk and a home run to make the game 3-2. But, the Colorado Rockies went piecemeal with Justin Miller, Boone Logan and Jairo Diaz for the three eighth inning outs, and took their 3-2 lead to the top of the ninth.

In that eighth inning, Miller struck out the only batter he faced. That gave him a Colorado Rockies record (eight consecutive strikeouts on eight consecutive batters), and put him two behind the all-time Major League record of ten consecutive strikeouts set by Eric Gagne with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2003.

In the ninth,  the Rockies rallied for a run when Daniel Descalso scored on a wild pitch by Mariners’ reliever Tony Zych, and that insurance is never a bad thing considering John Axford came out to close the game in the ninth with a 4-2 lead. In the ninth, John Axford closed things down despite allowing a hit and a walk, and the Rockies walked away winners.

The Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners meet again on Saturday night at Safeco Field. Yohan Flande will take the hill for Colorado.

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