Rockies 3, Cardinals 2: Walk it off in style

The Colorado Rockies are one of baseball’s best home teams, and have added a 31st win to the tally to tie the Chicago White Sox for best home record. Today the red hot Rockies kicked the Redbirds to the curb, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 in a two-out walk-off victory thanks to excellent pitching and a catcher having finally found his mojo.

Germán continues to work his magic

Germán Márquez, building off of his excellent June, had an excellent outing for his first start of July. With yet another quality start under his belt, Germán pitched six full innings while giving up only two runs on five hits. The two runs came on a Harrison Bader two-run home run in the second inning. He struggled a little bit with control of his breaking pitches early on, but locked it down for his last few innings of work.

Márquez struck out a season high 11 batters and walked just one, as his ERA drops to 3.59 for the season.

During the game, it was announced that Márquez would be the Rockies’ sole representative at the 2021 All-Star Game—the first Rockies pitcher at the midsummer classic since Ubaldo Jiménez in 2010.

The bullpen didn’t blow it

Despite expectations to the contrary, the Rockies bullpen got it done when it mattered this afternoon.

Local lefty Lucas GIlbreath worked a scoreless seventh inning with a strikeout to kick off the day for the bullpen. Yency Almonte, who has been struggling mightily in 2021, also pitched a solid inning of relief. Almonte has not had an ERA under 10 since the end of April, but pitched a scoreless eighth inning and allowed just one hit.

The fireballing rookie Justin Lawrence capped things off with his first big league win. He struggled with command, giving up a base hit and a walk, but finished the inning by inducing a double play.

Díaz does it again

Elias Díaz has been absolutely on fire to finish up June and kick off July. After his incredible walk-off home run to kick off the series on July 1st, Díaz figured he’d walk it off again to end the series.

In a game where the Rockies had been struggling offensively, the game went into the bottom of the ninth inning in a 2-2 tie. With two outs, Joshua Fuentes laced a single down the middle, and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Elias Díaz—who was 0-for-1 with a strikeout—worked the count full off Cardinals closer Alex Reyes. Reyes threw a well-placed fastball on the low outside corner, and a reaching Díaz slapped it deep enough into left field for Fuentes to turn on the jets and score.

The Rockies have a league-leading nine walk off wins, and have walked off more times than they have won on the road.

Coming up next

The Rockies have just two series left before the All-Star Break puts the season at the half-way mark. They have Monday off before jetting off to Arizona to take on the floundering Diamondbacks in the desert. Big Jon Gray has the mound for the Rockies, while the D-Backs haven’t announced their starter yet. First pitch will be at 7:10 p.m. MDT.