Rockies defeat Nationals 9-4 in 11 innings

The Rockies beat the Nationals 9-4 today in Washington, DC.

It was a tale of two games for starter Jorge De La Rosa, which was fitting, because two baseball games could have been played within the span of this one. De La Rosa was sharp over his first three innings. With command and bite, De La Rosa struck out seven batters over his first three innings. He didn’t walk anybody either. But it also took De La Rosa 64 pitches to make it through those innings, and it might have gassed him a bit.

Meanwhile, the Rockies gave De La Rosa a lead. Charlie Blackmon hit his 22nd home run of the season in the third. It was a solo shot. In the top of the fourth, the Rockies added two more. A Nolan Arenado single and a David Dahl double put runners on the corners with nobody out. Starting pitcher AJ Cole retired the next two hitters and almost escaped the inning without any damage; however, while trying to intentionally walk Daniel Descalso, Cole threw a wild pitch that allowed Arenado to score. He eventually did walk Descalso to get to De La Rosa. With Dahl on second after the wild pitch, De La Rosa helped himself out by knocking a run in with a single to give the Rockies a 3-0 lead.

It didn’t last long. The Nationals began the fourth inning with a single, another single, a double, and another single. Two runs scored in that sequence to make it 3-2. De La Rosa was able to retire the next three batters, but one of those came by way of an RBI groundout. The fourth ended with the game tied at three. De La Rosa got into trouble in the fifth inning as well. Trea Turner led off with a single to center, but he tried to stretch it into a double, and Blackmon threw him out at second. With two outs, De La Rosa allowed a single and a walk, but he was able to get Anthony Rendon out to complete the inning without allowing a run.

That was it for De La Rosa. He threw 112 pitches in five innings. He allowed three runs on eight hits and walked one while striking out eight.

The game remained tied at three until the seventh inning. Blackmon led off with a single. DJ LeMahieu attempted to reach with a bunt to the first base line. Reliever Mark Rzepczynski, who looked like he was unsure whether or not he was supposed to field the ball, committed a throwing error to first that allowed Blackmon to move to third base. He scored on a Carlos González groundout to give the Rockies a 4-3 lead.

That was the score heading into the ninth inning. Adam Ottavino had come on to finish the eighth inning, and if he was able to similarly close out the ninth without allowing a run it would have capped off four scoreless for the Rockies’ bullpen. It wasn’t so. Ottavino walked Ben Revere, who then stole second base. With two outs, Jayson Werth singled to left field to tie the game. Free baseball followed.

Neither team could score in the tenth. In the top of the eleventh, Cristhian Adames reached with an infield single. Blackmon then hit his second dinger of the day to right field. It was his 23rd of the season, and it put the Rockies ahead 6-4. But the Rockies weren’t done. LeMahieu notched his third hit of the day, and CarGo followed with his first. It was a home run that made it an 8-4 game. The Rockies had six hits and scored four runs in the eleventh before making an out. They tacked on another and wrapped up ahead 9-4.

The Rockies and Nationals will close out their slate of 2016 games tomorrow morning at 11:35 MT. Jorge De La Rosa will face the mysterious TBD. Chad Bettis will face Lucas Giolito.