The Sim Rockies won on Sunday, they won on Monday, and they won on Tuesday. If you’re counting, that’s three in a row! In the immortal words of Lou Brown in Major League II, “that’s a winning streak!”
Grilling up some trouble
Evan Grills made his fifth start of the year, and it was unfortunately his worst start to date. Luckily for him, Antonio Senzatela helped mop things up. Senzatela earned the win, but Grills has yet to lose a start. This was his first no-decision.
Grills started off strong for the first two innings, holding the Sim Royals scoreless. But the wheels fell off in the fourth when he gave up an RBI double to Alex Gordon to make it 4-1 Sim Rockies and followed it up two batters later with a game-tying three-run homer to Jorge Soler. Soler also hit a two-run shot in Tuesday’s game.
The Sim Rockies scored in the top of the fourth to retake the lead, but Grills gave it right back by allowing an RBI groundout to Brad Keller. In total, Grills lasted four innings and gave up seven runs (all earned) on eight hits. He walked two and struck out four. His ERA, which was 3.24 going into this game, has been steadily climbing and now sits at 4.97. Hopefully the magic isn’t wearing off for the 28-year-old rookie.
That’s a home run streak!
On top of it being a three-game winning streak for the team, Sam Hilliard continues his home run streak with another solo shot in the sixth. He now has seven on the year, and five in the last three games. He went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and didn’t strike out once! Hilliard showed flashes of what he could do at the end of last year and after struggling to start 2020, it looks like he might be starting to turn things on.
Garrett Hampson, who sustained a groin injury on Saturday, started the home run party. He hit a two-run shot in the second inning to extend the Sim Rockies lead from 1-0 to 3-0.
On the flip side, Sim Rockies’ pitching gave up three homers. Six of the Sim Royals’ eight runs came from home runs, and four of those came from Jorge Soler. Soler has accounted for six RBIs all off of homers.
Team baseball
Home runs are nice and all, but this game was won on a team effort. After all, the Sim Rockies scored 10 runs and only three of them came from the long ball. The first run was scored when Trevor Story reached on a throwing error in the first inning to score David Dahl. Dahl later hit a sacrifice fly in the second inning to give the Sim Rockies a 4-0 lead.
After the Soler homer in the third, Daniel Murphy scored Nolan Arenado with an RBI double to give the Sim Rockies a 5-4 lead. Kansas City took a 7-5 lead on an RBI groundout in the fourth and a two-run homer in the fifth, but after Sam Hilliard’s home run, Story knocked in Josh Fuentes on an RBI double and Charlie Blackmon followed it up with his own two-RBI double. Even Ian Desmond got in on the party, hitting an RBI pinch-hit double in the seventh to seal the Sim Rockies 10-8 victory. Once again, each of the Sim Rockies starters recorded at least one hit.
Shutdown bullpen
Once Grills was lifted, Antonio Senzatela came in to perform mop up duty. He pitched two innings in which he gave up two hits and struck out a batter. He earned the win, improving his record to 4-4 in 2020. It was his second win in as many relief appearances.
Carlos Estévez gave up a solo home run to Jorge Soler, but he also struck out a batter. Tyler Kinley and Scott Oberg got the final six outs, combining for two innings of no-hit baseball with a walk (Kinley) and a strikeout (Oberg). Oberg’s efforts earned him his 11th save of the year.
Up Next
Since the Sim Rockies are on this winning streak, they are looking to sweep the Sim Royals on Wednesday afternoon. Germán Márquez (5-6, 6.09 ERA) will toe the rubber against Sim Royals’ right-hander Jakob Junis (3-7, 5.36 ERA).
Since the Sim Rockies are going for the sweep, there will be a broadcast on YouTube starting at 1:15pm MT for you to follow along. See you then!