The resilient version of the Colorado Rockies showed up on Friday night, coming from behind twice to defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Rockies 8, D-Backs 4 (boxscore)
Aaron Cook was the beneficiary on the mound, picking up his first win since 1975 or so. But credit goes to him as well. Despite struggling early and seeming destined for another short and disappointing outing, Cook steadied himself on the mound and even contributed a pair of hits, a run and an RBI at the plate.
Good for him.
He's still pretty close to finished, but it's a feel good moment for a pitcher and person I respect a lot.
Offense
Guess who was the driving force of the offense again... Yes, Dexter Fowler. He is absolutely swinging the bat the best he has in his career. This just weeks after bottoming out, getting sent to AAA, and somehow bottoming out even more there. Seriously, the numbers he put up there the first three weeks were scary, but the Rockies showed faith, and Fowler's confidence is soaring since his return.
In this one, Fowler went 3-for-5, finishing a home run shy of the cycle. His RBI triple in the 8th was the hit that sealed the deal.
Mark Ellis had a similarly strong game hitting behind Fowler, going 3-for-4 with three singles. Once again, that's the top of your order going 6-for-9 and scoring four runs. You'll win a lot of games like that.
Three postives
1. Rex Brothers: Here's your new 8th inning setup man. After struggling with his command early in his ML career, Brothers has rebounded and shown those questioning his upside that there's a lot to be excited about. The last two outings are good examples of what that upside will be. He struck out the side in his previous outing. This time, he set Arizona down 1-2-3 and fanned two.
2. Productive outs: Todd Helton and Seth Smith delivered sacrifice flies. Later in the game, Ryan Spilborghs had an RBI groundout. Outs that results in runs. This is also something that will win you baseball games.
3. Double steal: Seth Smith and Ian Stewart pulled off a double steal in the ninth. At that point the Rockies were just showing off.
Overall
Good Rockies on Friday. Good Rockies again on Saturday? Yes?
2 comments:
I think Dex's confidence is "soaring" as opposed to "souring," but otherwise, yes, a very inspiring game after a scary start by Cook.
I did. The only bad thing about spell check is it's not smart enough to know when you're putting a completely wrong word in the wrong spot. Thanks for pointing out my error.
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