Rockies 4, Phillies 1: Charlie goes yard for the first time this season

The Rockies were able to take advantage of some mistakes made by the Phillies and then (finally) string together some hits with runners in scoring position. Despite winning the game, they still left 14 men on base, something that needs to be addressed.

The Quiet Five

The first five innings were quiet for both teams with five hits total and no runs on the board. The first hit came from Bryce Harper (surprise, surprise) and the Rockies had hits from Connor Joe, José Iglesias, CJ Cron and Sam Hilliard. The not-so-quiet part of these innings? A beautiful pickoff in the fourth that I’ll go into more detail about next.

Gorgeous, gorgeous moments

It was beauty, it was grace, Elias Díaz was aggressive right when he needed to be. His first pickoff of 2022 was truly a memorable moment. Rhys Hoskins ended up on base after Chad Kuhl walked him, but he didn’t stay there long.

That’s not it, though. If you want another first of the season, you can add a tally to Charlie Blackmon’s home run column. After struggling to produce much this season, he finally sent a ball over the wall and into the Phillies bullpen. That solo home run put the Rockies on the board.

Do you like weird baseball, too? If you do then the Rockies scoring their second run on a wild pitch should make you happy. The wild pitch was not the only one in the sixth inning either, both of them led to the Rockies taking a two-run lead.

Kuhl game, bro

Chad Kuhl pitched an incredible game. Six innings of dominance was what we’ll remember from tonight. He left the game after throwing his warm up pitches in the seventh inning. During the sixth inning Kuhl felt some tightness is his right hip flexor/hamstring and despite wanting to continue Manager Bud Black made the decision to go to the bullpen.

Kuhl felt that his start tonight was special. He was working hard to avoid the “big misses” and get in and around the strike zone to consistently battle. And not only was his performance special, but it was his first game out there in Rockies purple.

Other things of note

The Rockies won this game, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few negative moments. Carlos Estévez had a less than stellar performance. He gave up three hits and was only able to get one out. His last outing was marred by him having a fan spill beer in his eye during his warm up, but he does not have the same reasoning tonight. That might be of concern if we continue to see these rough outings.

Additionally, there were some moves made tonight. Both Jordan Sheffield and Colton Welker were sent back to AAAlbuquerque as they made the move to activate Lucas Gilbreath and Robert Stephenson. (This was announced in the post-game media availability but has not been made official via the clubs social media yet.)

Up Next

Game two of this series against the Phillies continues tomorrow night at 6:40pm MDT. It was be a battle of the Kyle’s. The struggling Kyle Freeland (0-1, 10.00 ERA) will start for the Rockies. The Phillies will send out Kyle Gibson (1-1, 3.09 ERA.) If Freeland can find the consistency he is lacking, the Rockies will have a chance of taking the series in game two.