The Rockies earned a hard-fought victory in a struggle against the dreaded Dodgers to avoid getting swept
The Colorado Rockies hadn’t defeated the dreaded Los Angeles Dodgers since Opening Day back in April. Facing a sweep at home to kick off the second half of the season following the All-Star break, the Rockies needed to find a way to eke out a win against their big brothers in the NL West. Another stellar Jon Gray outing and a heroic walk-off home run from Charlie Blackmon granted the Rockies the victory they sorely needed to win 6-5.
The sun shines on a Gray day
Rockies big man Jon Gray put together an excellent afternoon for his fourth quality start in a row. The Gray Wolf was howling as he struck out seven Dodgers batters while allowing just two runs on six hits and two walks. He really only struggled in the third inning, where he gave up a two-run home run to Justin Turner. Gray also moved up on the Rockies’ leaderboard for all-time strikeouts; with 779, he trails only Jorge De La Rosa (985) with Germán Márquez (754) hot on his tail.
With his strikeout of Zach McKinstry in the third inning, Jon Gray moved past Ubaldo Jiménez for the second-most strikeouts in franchise history with 774.
Jorge De La Rosa leads all Rockies pitchers with 985 career strikeouts.
— Rockies Club Information (@RockiesClubInfo) July 18, 2021
Jon Gray’s 7 strikeouts pic.twitter.com/AUBFlzZau9
— RoxGifsVids (@RoxGifsVids) July 18, 2021
Who else but Chuck Nazty?
The Rockies walked it off this afternoon for their 10th walk-off victory of the season—tying the franchise record. Down 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th inning, Garrett Hampson was brought home from second base on productive outs to tie things up. Charlie Blackmon, who had not hit a home run since June 3rd, took his at-bat with two outs. On the third pitch he saw, he clocked the ball hard over the right field wall for the win.
DON’T COUNT US OUT!@Chuck_Nazty with another walk-off! pic.twitter.com/nXL430Lvcz
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) July 18, 2021
Charlie Blackmon is the 2nd player in Rockies history with 3 walk-off hits in a season, joining Dante Bichette in 1996.
Blackmon now has 5 walk-off HR in his career, tied for 2nd-most in Rockies history behind only Todd Helton (7). pic.twitter.com/QFX9AioQYE
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) July 18, 2021
Chuck Nazty is the second player in Rockies history to have three walk-off hits in a single season (Dante Bichette, 1996) and is in second place for franchise walk-off home runs with five (Helton, 7).
The bullpen made it harder than it needed to be.
Jon Gray put the Rockies in perfect position to win this game despite their offense starting out anemic. Gray was in line for the win with a score of 3-2 as he departed in the seventh inning and gave way to the bullpen. Carlos Estévez pitched the eighth inning and missed his spots badly, giving up a double to Justin Turner and a Will Smith home run with a poorly located slider down and on the hands to give the Dodgers a 4-3 lead.
Daniel Bard pitched a scoreless ninth inning, and the game would go to extras. Mychal Givens struck out three batters but walked his first, and a well-placed Will Smith single brought home the extra runner from second. This led to the Rockies trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th and needing the heroics of Garrett Hampson and Charlie Blackmon to secure the victory.
Coming up next
The Rockies are off on Monday before playing host to the Seattle Mariners for a two-game series starting on Tuesday. Rockies ace and All-Star Germán Márquez will face off against Colorado native Marco Gonzales. First pitch is at 6:40 PM.
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