Phew. The Rockies held on to a slim lead throughout most of the game, but Wade Davis blew his first save of the season in the ninth inning, which tied the game at two and sent the Rockies to the bottom of the ninth. The Rockies had a chance to walk it off, but some weird stuff happened that prevented it (explained below).
In the tenth, the Rockies loaded the bases, and Tony F. Wolters took a walk to give the Rockies the 3-2 win. What a game.
Defense
The defense was mostly solid. Nolan Arenado nearly threw Ozzie Albies out after dodging a broken bat, and the Rockies turned three double plays. Ian Desmond was part of one of those—a nice 3-6-3 double play that got Dansby Swanson off the base paths and eliminated the threat in a tight game.
Tony Wolters had a nice slide and throw that for a while seemed like it was going to be the play of the game. And in the tenth, Wolters airmailed a throw to center field to allow Ozzie Albies to get to third. But then Trevor Story made the real defensive play of the game:
Trevor Story with a sick jumping catch. 95 mph off the bat 72% hit probability pic.twitter.com/KRLqRnj34r
— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) April 8, 2018
Ummm
Here was the situation. The Rockies had two runners on with nobody out in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. They were fortunate enough to have Charlie Blackmon up to bat. Things were looking good!
Then the pitch came, and Charlie squares up to bunt? Why?! Okay, okay, he fouled it back. Maybe it was one of those things where you try it once and move on.
Nope.
Squared up again, but this time Chuck got enough of the baseball to pop it up in foul territory. That made the first out. DJ LeMahieu followed by drilling one to second on a hit and run that ended up being a double play.
On the one hand, you can sort of understand the inclination to put a runner on third with one out, even if it takes the bat out of Blackmon’s hands. On the other hand, Charlie Blackmon is one of the best players in the National League, and it has nothing to do with his bunting, and why would you want to take the bat out of his hands? The Rockies took a risk, and it turned out poorly.
Also, it all worked out in the end.
Looking ahead
The Rockies and Braves wrap up their series tomorrow starting at 1:10 MT. It’ll be a battle of left-handers. Kyle Freeland will start for the Rockies, and Sean Newcomb starts for the Braves.