Colorado Rockies: The top 5 Rockies games from the 2018 season (so far)

Number 4

July 15, 2018

Colorado Rockies vs. Seattle Mariners

Coors Field, Denver, Colo.

The Rockies came into their rainy Sunday afternoon game against Seattle looking to finish off what was a relatively disappointing first half with a bang.

After starting 38-42, the Rockies came in at 50-45 and winners of 12 of 15 including four in a row. Tyler Anderson was on the mound for Colorado facing off against Seattle’s Mike Leake, and both pitched well. Anderson went six innings, giving up two runs on five hits, but with both runs and four hits coming in the first inning. Leake also went six innings giving up two runs, one earned, on six hits.

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The Mariners led after one until a third inning single by Nolan Arenado scored two, one of the runs coming off of a throwing error by Mitch Haniger. A seventh inning RBI single by Dee Gordon gave Seattle a 3-2 lead, but it was short-lived. Again, the Rockies tied it in the bottom of the seventh thanks to a Chris Iannetta sacrifice fly and it was 3-3 going into the eighth. Clean ninth innings from Álex Colomé for Seattle and a combination of Bryan Shaw and Scott Oberg for the eighth and ninth for Colorado sent the game to the bottom of the ninth inning, still tied 3-3 and setting the stage for Sir Trevor Story.

Right-hander Nick Vincent entered the game for the Mariners in the ninth and worked ahead of Story until he hung a 2-2 slider over the heart of the plate that Story crushed over the center field bleachers for his first career walk-off home run, sending the Rockies into the All-Star break winners of five in a row and one of the hottest teams in baseball.

Number 3

August 18, 2018

Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves

SunTrust Park, Cumberland, Ga.

Colorado came into Atlanta for a four-game series playing excellent baseball. They had won four of five against the Los Angeles Dodgers and defending champion Houston Astros, and had no plans of slowing down. They took the first two games against the Braves in convincing fashion, outscoring Atlanta 16-8, and were looking to win the series going into Saturday.

Stud right-hander Mike Foltynewicz was on the mound for the Braves with Antonio Senzatela going for Colorado, and they both pitched very well. Senzatela pitched five innings and gave up just two runs and five hits, but Foltynewicz had one of his better outings of the season, going seven strong giving up just four hits and no runs to go along with nine punchouts.

The Braves would add another run off of Bryan Shaw in the bottom of the eighth and entered the ninth up 3-0 with left-handed closer A.J. Minter on the mound and an attempt to salvage the series on Sunday seemed imminent for Atlanta. After back-to-back groundouts from Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado to start the ninth, a comeback didn’t seem like it would be in the cards for the Rockies this time, but a long two-out double from Trevor Story put some life into the lineup. A single from David Dahl moved story to third and first baseman Ian Desmond laced a 3-2 pitch for a double down the left field line that scored Story and Dahl for his sixth and seventh RBI of the previous 24 hours.

The Rockies were down 3-2 with Gerardo Parra entering the game to pinch hit. Parra, who was hitting .188 against left-handers in 2018 at this point, dropped a single in front of the left fielder that scored Desmond and the ballgame was tied.

After a groundout by Chris Iannetta, and a quick ninth inning by Adam Ottavino, it was off to extras. With one out in the 10th, DJ LeMahieu smashed a ball over the center field fence to give Colorado a 4-3 lead. The Rockies would add an insurance run, and Wade Davis would lock up the bottom of the 10th to give the Rockies the 5-3 victory and would win on Sunday to sweep the four-game set in Atlanta.

Number 2

June 28, 2018

Colorado Rockies vs. San Francisco Giants

AT&T Park, San Francisco, Calif.

Coming into play on June 28, the Rockies sat at 38-42 and eight games behind Arizona for the division lead and 5.5 games behind the Phillies for the second Wild Card. They had lost the first two games in San Francisco and, coming into Sunday, had lost four straight overall. The season, while early, felt as if it was in the balance.

The Rockies got off to a fast start with a Nolan Arenado home run in the first inning off Chris Stratton and had a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. The Giants scored three off starter Jon Gray and tied the game going into the fifth. A two-run single by DJ LeMahieu in the seventh gave the Rockies another lead, but it was short lived. A seventh inning double by Andrew McCutchen scored one and an eighth inning double by Alen Hanson scored two to give the Giants a one run lead heading into the ninth inning. But there were heroics to come.

After a leadoff single by Chris Iannetta and a pop-out by Tom Murphy, up came LeMahieu. On a 3-2 fastball, he crushed it 414 feet into the left field bleachers, giving the Rockies the 9-8 lead. Wade Davis closed out the ninth and the Rockies won. The jolt by DJ propelled the Rockies on to win 13 of 16 to close the first half of the season.

Number 1

August 11, 2018

Colorado Rockies vs. Los Angeles Dodgers

Coors Field, Denver, Colo.

Stop me if you’re tired of hearing about a Colorado Comeback.

I was going to do a three-way tie for August 10-12, because the last three games of this Dodgers series were one, very important, and two, some of the most nail-biting and exciting games of the season.

I refer to the three games as the “Ryan McMahon Games”. His game-winning homer in the seventh inning of the second game of the series, with the emphatic turn to the dugout when he hit first base, was one of the coolest moments of the year … and the Dodgers walking him to get to Iannetta in the last game was a pretty cool moment too.

Colorado Rockies

But we all know which game should land in this list. Young guns Kyle Freeland and Walker Buehler were on the mound for the Rockies and Dodgers that night and both were nails. Freeland went seven innings to the tune of six hits, two earned runs, and a season-high 10 strikeouts, while Buehler also went seven, giving up just four hits and zero runs.

A Justin Turner RBI triple in the first inning and a Yasiel Puig solo homer in the second were the difference in the game for eight and a half innings. The Rockies offense had been held to just four hits through eight and, with Kenley Jansen going on the DL the night before due to an irregular heartbeat, the Dodgers put in solid left-hander Scott Alexander to face the Rockies lineup, beginning with Carlos Gonzalez to begin the ninth.

After a strikeout of Gonzalez to begin the ninth, Trevor Story topped a ball down the third base line for a double and Dave Roberts pulled Alexander for right-hander JT Chargois to face Nolan Arenado, who was pinch-hitting for Gerardo Parra. After Arenado was hit in the hip by a 3-1 fastball, Ian Desmond hit a 3-2 pitch up the middle when Brian Dozier made a spectacular play to get Arenado at second and Manny Machado nearly turned the double play at first … which brought up the previous night’s hero in Ryan McMahon.

On a 1-0 inside fastball from Chargois, McMahon belted the pitch just over the out of town scoreboard in right field to give the Rockies the 3-2 win over Los Angeles. Pandemonium erupted.