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It's early, but Juan Nicasio isn't playing around. He's playing ball.
Nicasio continued his excellent spring with four innings of one hit, zero run baseball. He walked one and struck out three and has been everything the Rockies could have asked short of being literally unhitable in his two starts so far.
Tyler Chatwood, who has just as much to prove as Nicasio in 2014, came on in relief and was effective.
Wilin Rosario had two impressive throws, one caught stealing at second, one pick-off of a runner at first.
Outfielder Corey Dickerson keeps doing his best to force the Rockies to find a place for him. He smacked a home run on a fly ball to right center field that was summed up by Chris Chrisman:
That sounded loud off Dickerson’s bat.
— Chris Chrisman (@chrischrisman) March 9, 2014
The Rockies offense got started in the first when Rosario singled in Drew Stubbs who had singled and Matt McBride who had doubled.
They would remain mostly silent until Dickerson's home run in the sixth inning. The Rockies tacked on three more in the seventh when Kyle Parker followed a single (and stolen base) from Paul Janish and a HBP from Tim Wheeler with a double that would plate them both.
Kent Matthes brought Parker in on a sacrifice fly, proving that it is possible for the Colorado Rockies to have productive outs.
Adam Ottavino got into some trouble in his half of the seventh by walking Omar Infante and Ramon Hernandez to open the frame. He managed to strike out the next batter (Jarrod Dyson) but Jimmy Peredes would single in Infante in the next at-bat. Ottavino escaped the inning without further damage.
Rob Scahill hit the first batter he faced in the eighth but got Danny Valencia to ground into a double-play to third baseman Charlie Culberson. After walking Christian Colon he got another grounder to third from Omar Infante. The control issues are concerning still but overall a nice bounce-back outing featuring two ground-ball outs.
Things got really fun for some PuRPs, past and present, in the ninth inning. Ryan Wheeler got things going with a single which was then matched by (PuRP #4) Rosell Herrera and former PuRP (who is having a nice spring) Tim Wheeler. Then (PuRP #5) Kyle Parker proved he still had more in him.
Parker cleared the bases off of pitcher Donnie Joseph, with a line drive double to center field, moving the third on the throw.
Kent Matthes would single in Parker and the final tally of the final frame would be four runs for the good guys.
(PuRP #2) Eddie Butler came into the game with a nine run lead. He gave up a lead-off single to Ramon Hernandez but induced a double-play and a ground-out to end the game. Butler threw six pitches, five for strikes.
Kyle Parker: 2-2 with 5 RBI and 2 XBH.
Colorado Rockies offense: 10 runs on 14 hits.
Colorado Rockies pitching: one run on four hits and zero errors by the defense behind them.
Juan Nicasio and Tyler Chatwood pitching well is always good.