Rockies 5, Dodgers 4: The bullpen finally saves a game

DENVER — The Colorado Rockies got a much-needed win on Friday night. After dropping the series opener after their bullpen was unable to bring home the win, the Rockies bullpen held on after Ryan McMahon gave the Rockies a lead in the seventh inning.

Jon Gray wasn’t extremely effective, but battled into the sixth inning to give the Rockies a fighting chance and the team bailed him out.

Fast start

In true 2018 Rockies fashion, Jon Gray gave up a first-inning run. Also in true 2018 Rockies style, they scored two in the bottom of the first to gain their first lead thanks to this homer by DJ LeMahieu.

“I knew (offense) was going to come,” Gray said. “I didn’t know when, but it was awesome right then and there, what a smash.”

That never hurts...

The Rockies inability to score runs over the past few weeks has been well documented. Despite getting plenty of base runners early in the game, the Rockies did everything they could to make sure they would only get three runs off of Maeda.

In the bottom of the first, after LeMahieu’s home run, Cargo tripled and was standing at third with nobody out. With Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story coming up next, the chances of him scoring was extremely high until he went on contact on a sharp grounder by Arenado and recorded the first out at home plate when he was thrown out by 45 feet.

In the third, Story got cut down at home as well on a contact play though his was slightly more understandable as it took a perfect throw to get him and it was the second out of the inning.

Once again, in the 8th the Rockies got Chris Iannetta to third with nobody out and couldn’t score him, though he didn’t run into an out at least.

Nolan McMahon being Nolan

Thankfully for the Rockies, Ryan McMahon bailed them out. After entering the game in the fifth inning after Nolan Arenado’s injury, McMahon came through with a clutch seventh-inning homer against former Rockies reliever Zac Rosscup.

“I was just going up there, honestly, looking to put a good swing on the ball, try to get the next guy up so we could get some runs going,” McMahon said.

It was actually the second time McMahon had homered against Rosscup this season; he also took him deep during a live batting practice session when Rosscup was still with the Rockies organization and rehabbing an injury.

McGee Bounces Back

Rockies reliever Jake McGee got five big outs in the seventh and eighth innings for the Rockies, allowing just one hit in his 1 ²⁄₃ innings of work. Perhaps more importantly, McGee’s velocity was higher than it has been this season, consistently throwing 95-96 mph on his fastball and touching 98.

“That’s more like it,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “That’s basically the message that I sent to Jake after the game, and even between innings.”

Up Next

The Rockies and Dodgers continue their four-game set on Saturday at 6:10 pm MT. Kyle Freeland is scheduled to start opposite Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler.