After dropping the first two games to the last-place Sim Cardinals, the Sim Rockies avoided the sweep on Thursday behind strong pitching and a trio of home runs.
Evan keeps grilling up success
Evan Grills continues to be a bright spot in the Sim Rockies’ struggling rotation. In his fourth start of the season, he pitched six innings in which he gave up four earned runs on nine hits. He also walked two batters and struck out three. His ERA sits at 3.24 and has yet to record a loss. That’s up an entire run from his 2.37 that he started the game with, but still the best in the rotation.
After Grills was pulled, Tim Collins, Wade Davis, and James Pazos combined for three scoreless innings in which they yielded two hits and one strikeouts. Collins pitched 2⁄3 of an inning and gave up a hit; Davis pitched 1 1⁄3 innings and struck out a batter; and Pazos pitched the final inning and gave up a hit.
You get a home run! You get a home run! Everyone gets a home run!
Ok, maybe not everyone, but Charlie Blackmon, Ryan McMahon, and Nolan Arenado all did for the Sim Rockies. Blackmon was first, hitting a game-tying solo shot in the top of the third inning. McMahon hit the big fly in the fifth — a three-run shot to score Arenado and Daniel Murphy and put the Sim Rockies up 6-4. Arenado had the final score of the game, hitting a solo shot in the eighth to make the final score 8-4. Five of the Sim Rockies eight runs came via the long ball. Blackmon now has 16 homers on the year, McMahon has 21, and Arenado has 22.
On the Sim Cardinals side, Paul DeJong hit a two-run shot in the third to score Paul Goldschmidt and put the Red Birds up 4-2.
In non-home run scoring, Miles Mikolas hit an RBI groundout to first and Kolten Wong hit an RBI double in the first to put the Sim Cards up 2-1 early. On the Sim Rockies side, Nolan Arenado scored Chris Owings on a single in the first, Daniel Murphy scored Charlie Blackmon on a single in the fourth right before the McMahon homer, and Trevor Story scored Murphy on a single in the seventh.
Up Next
The Sim Rockies return home for a three game set against the Sim Padres (hopefully it’s not a repeat of last year’s June series against the real Padres). Ryan Castellani (1-2, 5.52 ERA) will go up against Joey Lucchesi (7-2, 3.15 ERA). First pitch is at 6:45pm on Friday and will be broadcast on Ben Kouchnerkavich’s YouTube channel!