Coors Field lived up to its reputation in Friday night’s game against the Sim Braves. The game saw a total of five home runs including a grand slam and multi-homer performance. Trevor Story led the way for the Rockies going 4-for-4 with a HR, 2 2B, and 3 RBI. The Braves kept it close when a grand slam off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr brought them within one run of the Rockies. A fourth inning home run by Charlie Blackmon, his second of the game, gave the Rockies some cushion which they needed to secure the victory. The win is the second in a row for the Rockies bringing their record to 43-54.
Feasting on Fried
The Rockies have had good success against Max Fried, and they wasted no time proving it’s not a fluke. David Dahl led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk. He was then brought home by a Story home run. Blackmon followed with another home run bringing the score to 3-0. Matt Kemp crushed a 460-foot bomb off of Fried two batters later giving the Rockies an early four-run lead. In the bottom of the second with two outs and the bases empty, David Dahl delivered again, this time with a double. Story again drove in Dahl with a double chasing Fried from the game. Fried’s final line was 1 ⅔ IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 1 K.
Márquez survives one bad inning
It was an up and down night for German Márquez. He cruised through the first two innings and looked very sharp, but ran into trouble in the third. The Braves loaded the bases with one out after an Adalberto Mondesi double and Nick Markakis was hit by a pitch. Márquez proceeded to strike out Freddie Freeman but then allowed a grand slam to Acuña. He was able to get through the sixth inning with little difficulty until he found himself in another jam in the seventh. James Pazos came in to get the final two outs in the seventh but not without allowing two runners to score. Márquez had a line on the day of 6 ⅔ IP, 6 ER, 6 H, 2 BB, 8 K.
Bullpen duo closes it out
Tyler Kinley continued his excellent simulated season with a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Scott Oberg had a shaky ninth inning giving up a Tyler Flowers double and Markakis single before getting Freeman to strike out for the final out of the game.
Up Next
The Rockies will face the Braves again tomorrow with Jon Gray taking the mound against Sean Newcomb for the Brewers. You can watch the game on YouTube on Saturday at 6:15pm MT.