The Rockies beat the Reds 6-4 at Great American Ballpark on Sunday afternoon. The series wasn’t easy, the bullpen faltered, and one can argue that it should have been a sweep. But winning two out of three on the road is an undeniably good outcome.
In the first inning of the series finale, Billy Hamilton manufactured the Reds’ first run by himself, which is what he does. He reached first base after Nolan Arenado committed an error at third on a play he’d only attempt with a runner as fast as Hamilton speeding to first base. Hamilton proceeded to steal second and third base and scored on a groundout to shortstop.
The Rockies took a 2-1 lead in the third inning. Ryan Hanigan led off with a single, and he moved to third after Kyle Freeland doubled. Hanigan scored on a Charlie Blackmon sacrifice fly, and Freeland scored after DJ LeMahieu singled.
Four home runs gave the Rockies a 6-1 lead by the sixth inning. They came off the bats of, in order, Carlos González, Kyle Freeland, DJ LeMahieu, and Pat Valaika. CarGo’s homer was his 200th as a member of the Rockies. He’s the fifth player to do so, joining Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, Larry Walker, and Todd Helton.
The Reds got three runs back in the sixth inning. José Peraza hit a triple that was very nearly a home run that bounced off the top of the wall and back into play. Joey Votto, the next batter, hit a ball that bounced off the top of the wall and into the. Freeland got a couple of outs, but Scott Schebler hit a no-doubt homer to right field to make it 6-4.
That was it for Freeland. From the mound, he finished with 52⁄3 innings pitched. He gave up four runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out three. At the plate, Freeland hit a double and a home run. He also worked a walk and scored two runs.
Chris Rusin finished off the sixth and got two batters out in the seventh, after which Bud Black brought in Adam Ottavino. He got an out to finish the seventh, but Ottavino ran into trouble in the eighth. Votto led off with a single, and Ottavino then struck out Adam Duvall. Eugenio Suárez singled to put runners on first and second with one out. But Ottavino got out of it. He struck out Schebler strikeout Schebler and Arismendy Alcántara swinging, stranding both runners and keeping the score 6-4 in favor of the Rockies.
Greg Holland entered in the ninth inning to close it out. He walked the leadoff batter, but he retired the next three in order. Holland procured his league leading 19th save. He’s saved 68 percent of the Rockies wins so far this season.
The Rockies improved to 28-17 for the season, matching their season high mark of 11 games above .500. The Rockies also improved to 4-2 on their 10-game road trip so far—they’ve yet to lose a road series in 2017. They’ll enter the final leg of the trip tomorrow in Philadelphia. Jeff Hoffman will make a spot start for the Rockies, and he’ll face Jerad Eikhoff. The game starts at 5:05 MT.