Colorado Rockies: Four Things to Know About Tuesday's Win

With one swing of the bat, Nolan Arenado wiped away nearly five games of frustration for the Colorado Rockies offense.

Named as a National League All-Star earlier in the day, Arenado mashed a 2-2 pitch from San Francisco reliever Cory Gearrin over the left-center field wall for a three-run homer, pushing the Rockies to a 7-3 victory over the Giants, snapping Colorado’s six-game losing streak.

The homer was part of a four-run seventh-inning outburst for the Rockies, who had scored just three runs in the entire month of July. Arenado’s blast, however, quickly equaled that total and gave Colorado its first taste of momentum since the calendar turned to the new month.

Colorado would keep the offense going with three more runs in the eighth to seal the victory.

Absolutely, the win was important for the Rockies, but there were four things inside the game that stood out to us.

Arenado’s homer

Of course, you know Nolan hit a bomb (again) in San Francisco. He’s now tied for the fourth-most homers hit against the Giants by active players with 18. But it was what happened right before the home run that made it even sweeter.

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Gearrin threw sliders to Arenado throughout the at-bat, and two pitches before the homer were outside yet called strikes, dropping Nolan into a 1-2 hole and clearly frustrating Arenado. Gearrin offered another slider that Arenado didn’t bite on to move the count to 2-2 before the right-hander threw yet another slider that hung and Arenado made him pay for it with the blast.

Hundley’s fire

Angel Pagan and the Giants didn’t seem to appreciate the Rockies actually breaking out of their offensive funk … and the San Francisco outfielder took out some of his frustration on Colorado catcher Nick Hundley.

With Jake McGee on the mound, Hundley tried to frame a low pitch from McGee and it wasn’t called a strike. Pagan didn’t appreciate the effort and started jawing with Hundley, who began to give it right back to him. Eventually, the home plate umpire stepped between the two and both benches were warned after the war of words seemed to ratchet up the intensity on both sides.

Pagan would eventually strike out and Hundley would have words with him as he kept walking away toward the San Francisco bench. It was a good sign from the veteran who wasn’t going to let anyone from the NL West leaders get away with talking smack.

Chatwood is back

Forgive the pun, but it was great to see Tyler Chatwood back on the mound after being sidelined with a back injury in mid-June.

Entering the game with a 5-0 mark and a Major League-leading 1.25 ERA on the road, Chatwood looked solid in his return from the disabled list. Allowing one earned run and three hits in five innings, Chatwood kept the Rockies in the game until the Colorado offense caught life after he and San Francisco starter Madison Bumgarner had already exited the game.

The return of the zero

Fourteen months of waiting finally ended for Adam Ottavino on Tuesday night when he made his first appearance for the Rockies since undergoing Tommy John surgery.

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After being activated earlier in the day, Ottavino got Buster Posey to ground out in the top of the eighth. It was the only batter Number Zero would face in his return to the Rockies. For those just looking at the box score, it might not seem like much. To those who follow the Colorado Rockies, that one out was huge as the Colorado bullpen continues to reinvent and improve itself.