Hitting .111 (3-for-27) coming into the game, Charlie "Chuck Not-As-Nazty" Culberson hit a ridiculous walk-off home run, to dead center no less, to cap off a ridiculous 11-10 win for the Rockies.
The Rockies trailed 10-9 after LaTroy Hawkins gave up a run in the top of the ninth, but Troy Tulowitzki, who has fashioned himself a right-handed Ted Williams at the plate (.400/.500/.730) this year, led off the bottom of the inning with a single against Mets closer Kyle Farnsworth and advanced to second on Nolan Arenado's fly ball to set the stage for the pinch hitter Culberson.
Culberson was quickly down 0-2 against Farnsworth, but after taking a ball and fouling a pitch off drove Farnsworth's 1-2 offering over the center field fence for the third home run of his career and the 11-10 win for the home team.
Things did not start off well for the Rockies, Franklin Morales had his second rough start in a row, allowing six runs on nine hits in five innings with a walk and five strike outs.
Things went bad early for Morales, as he allowed three runs on four hits in the first, putting the Rockies in a quick 3-0 hole. That hole got deeper in the third as Morales allowed three runs on three more hits and was the victim of an error as New York took a commanding 6-0 lead.
That lead looked especially commanding with the performance of Mets starter Jenrry Mejia, who had scattered just three hits and a walk and got a pair of double play balls in his first four innings of work.
The fortunes reversed dramatically for both teams in the bottom of the fifth. Ryan Wheeler, in his first start of the season, led off the inning with a home run to right, getting the Rockies on the board and cutting the deficit to 6-1. That was followed by a base hit from Jordan Pacheco and a walk issued to DJ LeMahieu, putting two on and nobody out for pinch hitter Brandon Barnes, who grounded into a fielder's choice at second for the first out of the inning.
With runners on the corners and nobody out, Charlie Blackmon singled to center, scoring Pacheco and moving Barnes to third. Drew Stubbs followed with a single of his own, scoring Barnes, and Carlos Gonzalez, figuring it was the cool thing to do, got the Rockies' third-straight RBI single, scoring Blackmon to cut the Mets' lead to 6-4 and putting runners on the corners for Tulowitzki, who was hit on the elbow by Mejia's first pitch, loading the bases for Nolan Arenado and bringing Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen to the mound for a visit.
Arenado came to the plate 0-for-2 in his quest to extend his hitting streak to 23 games and having committed an error in the third that cost the Rockies a run. On Mejia's first pitch, he took care of both of those issues, extending the hitting streak to 23 and atoning for the error with a grand slam to left to give the Rockies an 8-6 lead and chasing Mejia from the game.
The Mets tied the game in the top of the sixth. Almost at the Speed of Sound, Rockies reliever Chris Martin gave up doubles to Daniel Murphy and Chris Young, before bring removed in favor of Rex Brothers, who allowed an RBI single to Curtis Granderson, tying the game at eight, before getting out of the inning.
The Rockies re-took the lead in the bottom of the seventh. Tulowitzki singled to lead off the inning for the 1,000th hit of his career, advanced to third on an Arenado double and scored on Pacheco's sacrifice fly to give the Rockies a 9-8 lead.
However, as they had two innings earlier, the Mets fought right back to tie the game up in the top of the eighth as Murphy doubled off Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino and scored on Chris Young's RBI single to tie the game once again.
The Mets took their first lead since the fifth in the top of the ninth, with pinch hitter Bobby Abreu getting a one-out double against Hawkins and scoring on Juan Lagares' single to give the Mets a 10-9 lead and setting up Culberson's heroics in the bottom of the ninth.
Tomorrow's series finale against the Mets marks the season debut of Jhoulys Chacin, who will face Dillon Gee at 2:10 p.m. MT.
Source: FanGraphs
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