Good lord did I miss watching Troy Tulowitzki play baseball. The Rockies' star shortstop blasted an opposite field home run in the first inning and climbed the ladder to rob a base hit in the second to remind us all why we love him so much. The pitching and a three run ninth inning did the rest of the work to propel the Rockies to their fourth Cactus League win.
Charlie Blackmon saw his first action of the spring today. He struck out and grounded out in his two at bats. That was a theme for the Rockies, who managed only two hits through eight innings (the Tulo homer and a Wilin Rosario single). But a ninth inning rally from some promising minor leaguers helped things out nicely. Mike Tauchmann reached on an error, and scored on a Ryan Casteel double. Will Swanner singled Casteel home, and then Kyle Parker doubled home Swanner to build a comfy 4-1 lead.
On the pitching side, Christian Bergman was okay but not great, surrendering four hits in 2.2 innings of work, including a Kyle Seager solo home run. The rest of the staff was pretty much nails, especially David Hale who struck out three in his two innings of work. Hale is in competition for a bullpen spot and could be depth for the starting rotation, so seeing him perform well is nice. Adam Ottavino worked around a lead-off triple by striking out two guys. And Jairo Diaz closed out the game with some high-90s gas.
The main story has to be Troy Tulowitzki though, who is healthy, blasting home runs, and being generally awesome once again. Give us 150 games Baseball Gods. Please. We've earned this.
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