Entering tonight with a taxed bullpen and a starting pitcher fresh off the injured list, the Colorado Rockies managed to battle back from an early deficit to earn a victory on a day of celebration for Todd Helton, a franchise legend.
Manager Warren Schaffer described the game as “one of my favorite wins of the season” in his post-game press conference, and it’s not hard to see why he would feel that way as the Rockies bested the Seattle Mariners, 5-3.
Quintana returns
José Quintana’s return to the mound started off
looking very good.
He got both JP Crawford and Randy Arozarena to strike out swinging to begin the game. Dominic Canzone worked the count full before walking on a pitch right at the top of the zone that was close enough that it may have been turned into a strike had Hunter Goodman challenged it.
Instead, Canzone walked to first and was immediately driven in on Cal Raleigh’s 23rd home run of the season.
Quintana navigated through the second inning without allowing any additional runs, but it wasn’t without drama. Michael Arroyo singled on a soft fly-ball blooper with one out. Lazaro Montes came up after Arroyo and grounded out on what may have been a double-play ball that unluckily deflected off of Quintana’s foot. Connor Norby was able to adjust and salvage the play to get a single out at first but the inning continued.
The third inning featured Quintana allowing a home run by Randy Arozarena that would land in, essentially, the same spot that Raleigh’s had in the first.
The Mariners weren’t done with just that homer, however, and Canzone would immediately reach base on a soft single to left once Arozarena finished his trot around the bases. Quintana got Raleigh to pop up for the second out of the inning before Julio Rodriguez singled and advanced Canzone to third.
Josh Naylor then hit a hard liner to right center field that would have been at least a double if not for a very difficult running catch from Cole Carrigg that ended the inning.
Quintana came back out for the fourth and was able to set down the side on just an additional 14 pitches. The only hard contact was a liner from Montes that was caught on a good play by Rumfield at first.
Given his long stint on the injured list, Quintana was relieved before the fifth after having reached 70 pitches. He ended his return outing with four innings pitched with three runs (all earned) on five hits and a single walk.
Speaking to reporters after the game Quintana did not hold back on what being able to finish the year on the mound meant to him:
“It’s huge for me. Especially when you have an elbow issue. I know the process I’ve been doing for a while and want to say thank you to the Colorado Rockies organization for giving me the chance to be back and waiting for me to be healthy. It was a long process and for me I just feel lucky and blessed to get this opportunity. I know how hard I’ve been working to be in this position right now but it’s huge to finish strong, to finish pitching and enjoy this time with the team. I missed it for a long time.”
The offense gets the job done
The first couple innings of the game for the Rockies lineup were relatively quiet. Connor Norby hit a soft single in the first, and Kyle Karros managed a walk in the second, but the rest of the Rockies lineup was unable to drive either in.
Jake McCarthy got the Rockies on the board in the third inning by taking advantage of a series of rushed throws from the Mariners defense.
First, he hit a very soft ground ball that Mariners catcher Raleigh attempted to field on his own but missed the mark with his spinning throw to first that sent the ball sailing to right field, allowing McCarthy to reach third base safely.
Norby came to the plate and hit a sacrifice fly to shallow right field. The throw from Canzone went to the plate in an attempt to catch McCarthy, and it looked like it was going to before it hit the ground just in front of the awaiting Raleigh, who failed to block it.
McCarthy came in to score the Rockies first run of the game.
The next couple innings saw Mariners starter Bryce Miller settle in with the Rockies hitters unable to find an answer. A Zac Veen walk was the only Rockies baserunner throughout either of the fourth or fifth innings.
As the Rockies lineup got its third look at Miller in the sixth, however, they appeared to finally be figuring him out. Norby struck out to start the inning but was followed by hard ground singles from both TJ Rumfield and Hunter Goodman to produce only their second runner in scoring position to that point.
With the scoring threat established, Miller was relieved by Carlos Vargas after 89 pitches. Vargas went on to get Cole Carrigg to ground into a fielder’s choice and induced a groundout from Karros to end the inning and the threat from the Rockies.
As deflating as the sixth inning felt at the time, it wouldn’t take long before the Rockies would once again get some runners in scoring position. In the seventh inning, everything started to fall apart for the Mariners pitching.
It started off innocently enough with a Mickey Moniak lineout and an innocuous single from Veen. Adael Amador came in to pinch hit for Tovar, and the wheels started to come off for Mariners reliever Vargas.
During the Amador at-bat Vargas appeared notably pre-occupied with attempting to keep Veen at first who ultimately didn’t attempt a steal. Amador, however, took the opportunity to smack a single of his own, and Vargas was pulled for Jose Ferrer.
Ferrer’s outing lasted only four pitches.
McCarthy hit a sacrifice grounder that scored Veen. The inning should have ended the next batter after Norby hit a ground ball to third that was bobbled by Mariners third baseman Wilson. With the gifted extra out, Rumfield came to the plate and smacked an RBI single.
As Goodman and Carrigg prepared to hit, Mariners manager Dan Wilson puller Ferrer in favor of righty Cooper Criswell. Despite the platoon disadvantage, Goodman was able to work a walk that loaded the bases before Carrigg drove in the go-ahead runs on a single to shallow right center.
Karros walked the bases loaded again but the inning finally came to an end on a Moniak ground out to short. When the dust had settled on the seventh inning, the Rockies had scored four runs and were winning 5-3.
The bullpen seals the win
After Quintana exited following the fourth inning, Nick Frasso took over in the fifth to face the top of the Mariners lineup the third time through the order.
He induced a sharp lineout to third from Crawford before striking out Arozarena. Canzone worked a full count before Frasso walked him. Frasso didn’t allow the long at bat and having a runner on first phase him, however, and managed to strike out Raleigh to end the inning the very next batter.
Rodriguez hit a double on a liner to left to open the sixth against Frasso. It soon looked like trouble after Naylor hit a popfly to advance Rodriguez to third. Then came a hard line drive towards left field by Arroyo . . . that was intercepted by a leaping Karros at third. Before Rodriguez had time to react, Karros tagged third and ended the inning on an unassisted double play.
Juan Mejia took over in the seventh and promptly produced the quietest two innings for Mariners hitters in the game to that point.
Other than a soft two-out double to left field from Raleigh in the eighth, Mejia shut down every hitter that came to the plate for two straight innings. After the game, Schaeffer heaped praise on Mejia’s performance saying “Everyone knows that when he goes back out a second time that’s been a struggle for him. Tonight he was nails. Not a pitch under 97.”
It was an open quesiton as to who would take the ball in the ninth inning. According to manager Warren Schaeffer Jordan Romano was willing to pitch for a third day in a row but was “sick as a dog.” So, instead, Schaeffer turned to another reliever that had pitched both of the previous two games: Brennan Bernardino.
Even though their usual closer wasn’t available, the Rockies still took the opportunity to make a show of Bernardino entering for a save opportunity.
Benardino got Naylor to ground out to start the inning before Arroyo reached first on a fly ball to right. Bernardino ensured that the Mariners savior from Friday night would not repeat his ninth inning heroics for a second game in a row with a four-pitch strikeout of Montes.
A two-out strikeout from Wilson earned the Rockies their 57th win and Bernardino his third career save.
Celebrating Helton
This electric win came as a fitting tribute to Colorado Rockies legend Todd Helton for whom a statue was unveiled before the game.
Helton was invited onto the field before the game for an additional honorary ceremony and threw out the first pitch to his daughter.
In the bottom of the third inning, Helton was invited into the Rockies television broadcast booth and talked about both the process of posing for the statue creation process joking that he “cramped up a little but” needing to hold his iconic pose for so long.
While Helton was watching McCarthy score the first Rockies run of the game, he spoke to his time on the 2007 Pennant-winning Rockies team and his celebration at catching the final out of the National League Championship series. About the fan response to that rare image of emotional response from him on the field Helton joked, “If I would have known it meant that much to people, I would’ve done it for 17 years. When you’re winning, it’s easy to be happy.”
Given how happy the crowd in the stands at Coors Field sounded tonight watching the Rockies win, Helton may just be on to something.
Up Next
Tomorrow night the Rockies will face the Mariners for the final time this season.
On the mound for the Rockies will be Tomoyuki Sugano facing Kade Anderson.
First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 MT.
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