Rockies 11, Royals 11: Chacin struggles in Rockies' first spring tie

The Pebbles have made a habit of scoring late.  For the second straight day, the Rockies came from behind late, this time on the strength of a two-run triple by Michael Paulk in the ninth to cap a 3-run ninth.  The two run lead was not safe in the hands of Scott Rice, whose career highlight came June 3, 1999.  Rice served up a two-run home run to Wilson Betemit.  Both managers decided they had enough of what was a sloppy game, calling the game a tie after nine innings.  

The game started off well offensively for Colorado as well.  Even though it has taken awhile for Eric Young Jr to start hitting, he really has been hitting well of late.  A day after hitting a walk-off three-run triple to close a five run inning, he led off another five-run inning with a single and stolen base in the first.  A Seth Smith triple, Chris Iannetta double and Ian Stewart single facilitated the scoring.

Unfortunately, a couple prized Latin pitchers struggled, namely Jhoulys Chacin, who gave up five runs on six hits in the first inning.  He rebounded to hold the Royals to one run on three hits in his subsequent two innings.  The good news for the Rockies is their significant rotational depth, allowing Chacin (who just turned 22 this January) time to figure out his issues at Colorado Springs.  Samuel Deduno continues to impress with his stuff, which is enough for me to be excited in spite of his four hits, two walks and two runs allowed in two innings of work.

Justin Speier and Matt Daley pitched perfect and dominant innings, striking out two each, and Franklin Morales was impressive again, allowing an "earned" run on the strength of a hit that was lost in the sun.

Seth Smith had three hits, Chris Iannetta roped a couple doubles, and Chris Nelson had a couple hits.  EY2 drove in a run with a squeeze bunt, tripled and singled in addition to his leadoff single.  Colorado came into the game leading the Cactus League in doubles and added four to that total, as well as three triples.  We were also leading the league in errors, but it was Kansas City who had four defensive miscues while the Rockies were technically error-less.

Box Score

Scott Rice for closer!