The Colorado Rockies spent most of Friday night finding ways to create offense.
They piled up 15 hits. They stole five bases. They recovered from an ugly first inning, erased a three-run deficit and eventually took the lead.
They also left 12 runners on base, failed to score with runners at the corners in the eighth, and erased their final chance with a baserunning mistake in the ninth.
Seattle made those misses hurt.
Lazaro Montes crushed a go-ahead home run off Jordan Romano to open the ninth, and
the Seattle Mariners held on for a 5-4 win at Coors Field.
The loss dropped the Rockies to 56-98, while Seattle improved to 72-82. Carlos Vargas earned the win to improve to 2-0, Romano took the loss and fell to 0-4, and Andrés Muñoz recorded his 28th save.
Hughes settles in after a brutal start
Gabriel Hughes’ night could hardly have started worse.
J.P. Crawford opened the game with a seven-pitch at-bat. Hughes jumped ahead 0-2, but Crawford worked the count full before turning on an 84.9 mph slider and sending it 421 feet to right at 104.5 mph.
Randy Arozarena followed with a six-pitch double. Hughes had again gotten ahead 0-2, but Arozarena worked his way back and lined a 92.2 mph four-seamer into center at 100.3 mph.
Then, Dominic Canzone attacked immediately.
Hughes threw an 85.6 mph sweeper with his first pitch and Canzone drove it 406 feet at 102.7 mph for another double.
Three batters. Three extra-base hits.
Hughes finally stopped the momentum by winning a pair of long at-bats.
Cal Raleigh went eight pitches before Hughes got him to swing through an 87.9 mph slider.
Julio Rodríguez followed with a seven-pitch battle before Hughes froze him with a 91.9 mph four-seamer.
Josh Naylor still got Seattle two more runs with a ground-ball single to right before Hughes finally escaped the inning.
Seattle led 3-0.
Then Hughes looked different.
His demeanor changed. He started working with noticeably more energy and purpose and, more importantly, started getting outs.
Hughes returned for a 1-2-3, 13-pitch second inning, striking out Brock Rodden and Crawford. He retired the side again in the third, finishing it by striking out Raleigh for the second time, then needed only seven pitches to get through the fourth.
He also started getting more out of his full arsenal. Hughes leaned most heavily on his four-seam fastball, throwing it 38% of the time at an average of 92.4 mph, but mixed six pitches overall. He used his curveball 21%, sinker 17%, slider 13%, sweeper 9% and changeup 2%.
The four-seamer did most of the strikeout work, accounting for five of his six strikeouts, while the sweeper produced his best swing-and-miss rate among the secondaries. Hughes finished with 14 whiffs and 15 called strikes, and his velocity held steady even after the 34-pitch first inning.
By the time Lazaro Montes went down looking to begin the fifth, Hughes had retired 11 straight Mariners.
The streak ended when Rodden walked. Crawford lined out, but Arozarena reached on an infield single and Hughes’ night was over.
Mark Manfredi entered and walked Canzone to load the bases, but struck out Raleigh to leave all three runners stranded.
Hughes finished with three runs allowed on five hits over 4.2 innings. He walked one, struck out six and threw 95 pitches.
His first inning took 34 of them.
After that, Hughes gave the Rockies a chance.
Rockies keep coming at Woo
Bryan Woo did not have much trouble getting Colorado to swing.
The Rockies were aggressive early in counts throughout the night, with plenty of plate appearances ending after only two or three pitches.
They also hit him.
Connor Norby singled with one out in the first, Hunter Goodman added another single and Cole Carrigg lined an RBI single to right to get Colorado on the board.
The Rockies kept creating chances from there.
Mickey Moniak opened the second with a triple, but Colorado could not bring him home.
Norby and TJ Rumfield opened the third with consecutive singles. Goodman forced Rumfield at second, then Carrigg hit a fielder’s choice that resulted in Norby being thrown out at the plate. Kyle Karros lined out sharply to center to end another scoreless inning.
Colorado finally got another run in the fourth.
Ezequiel Tovar doubled with two outs, and Jake McCarthy followed with an RBI single to right to cut Seattle’s lead to 3-2.
McCarthy stole second, and Norby walked, but Rumfield struck out to end the inning.
Norby’s walk stood out.
Moniak had seen two pitches. Adael Amador saw two. Tovar doubled on the first pitch and McCarthy singled on the second. Woo faced those four hitters with only seven pitches combined.
Norby matched that total by himself, fouling off two-strike pitches and eventually drawing a seven-pitch walk.
Woo leaned even more heavily on his fastball than Hughes. His four-seamer made up 53% of his pitches and averaged 96.5 mph, with the sweeper serving as his primary secondary.
The Rockies were willing to attack both.
Woo’s sweeper still missed bats, producing four whiffs on six swings, but Colorado repeatedly squared up the harder stuff. He allowed 13 hard-hit balls, including seven against the four-seamer, while his sinker was also hit hard when the Rockies put it in play.
The velocity held into the sixth, but Colorado never really let him settle into an easy rhythm. The Rockies swung aggressively in the zone, hit plenty of balls hard and kept forcing him to pitch with traffic.
The Rockies broke through in the sixth.
Tovar singled with one out, ending Woo’s night.
Seattle brought in left-hander Gabe Speier.
Tovar immediately stole second.
McCarthy then worked a six-pitch at-bat before driving a 94.2 mph sinker to center for his 12th triple of the season. Tovar scored and the game was tied.
Norby did not wait around.
After McCarthy forced Speier through six pitches, Norby attacked the first one he saw, lining a 94.3 mph four-seamer into center to score McCarthy and give Colorado a 4-3 lead.
Norby stole second and moved to third on Rumfield’s groundout.
Goodman flew out to finish the inning, but the Rockies had finally turned all of their traffic into a lead.
The lead does not last
Manfredi worked a scoreless sixth before Brennan Bernardino took over in the seventh.
Seattle tied the game without doing much damage after the first batter.
Michael Arroyo pinch-hit for Rodden and attacked Bernardino’s first pitch, driving a 76.6 mph curveball at 99.5 mph for a double.
Crawford bunted him to third.
Bernardino hit Arozarena.
Canzone lifted a sacrifice fly to center.
Tie game.
Bernardino then struck out Raleigh looking, giving Raleigh his fourth strikeout of the night.
Jaden Hill followed with a clean eighth.
The biggest play came against Naylor, who drove a ball 396 feet to straightaway center at 105 mph. Carrigg broke back immediately and chased it down just in front of the warning track.
The Rockies then had a chance to take control.
Tovar popped out to start the bottom of the eighth before McCarthy once again used his speed to create something.
He hit a liner back toward José A. Ferrer that ricocheted off the pitcher’s glove and rolled toward short. McCarthy was already at first by the time Cole Young recovered the ball.
Norby followed with a high chopper to short. The second bounce took heavy topspin and shot past Young.
Runners at the corners.
One out.
This was the chance.
Rumfield went down on three pitches, although the final one initially was called a ball before Seattle challenged and had the call overturned to strike three.
The Mariners went back to the bullpen for Goodman.
Goodman battled.
He also nearly took McCarthy out with a foul ball that hit him square in the shin near third base. McCarthy laughed it off.
Then Goodman grounded out to short.
Colorado had runners at the corners with one out in a tie game.
They got nothing.
One swing changes the ninth
Closer Jordan Romano entered for the ninth.
Montes greeted him immediately.
Romano left an 83.9 mph second-pitch slider where Montes could do damage, and Montes knew it as soon as he hit it.
He watched. He slow-walked out of the box.
The ball traveled 426 feet to right at 107.6 mph.
Seattle led 5-4.
Romano recovered from there. He struck out Arroyo, got Crawford to fly out, allowed an Arozarena single and retired Canzone to keep the deficit at one.
Colorado still had a chance.
Carrigg led off the bottom of the ninth with a single against Andrés Muñoz.
Then he took off.
Carrigg stole second with a headfirst slide on a play close enough for Seattle to challenge. His outstretched hand reached the base, started to come off, and his foot slid onto the bag almost simultaneously.
The call stood.
The Rockies had the tying run at second with nobody out.
Karros went down looking at a 100.1 mph fastball at the bottom of the zone.
Then Carrigg pushed too far.
He broke early for third, Muñoz stepped off, and Carrigg was caught in a brief rundown back toward second.
Out.
The speed that had helped Colorado all night finally cost it.
Moniak struck out to end the game.
Final thoughts
The Rockies had plenty of offense.
McCarthy went 3-for-5 with a triple, two RBI, a run and a stolen base.
Norby went 3-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, a run and a steal.
Carrigg went 3-for-5, drove in a run and stole two bases while also making one of the defensive plays of the night in center.
Tovar had two hits, including a double, stole a base and scored twice.
Hughes recovered from three straight extra-base hits to start the game and retired 11 straight Mariners.
There was a lot to like.
There was also a leadoff triple that never scored. Two runners aboard with nobody out in the third that produced nothing. Runners at the corners with one out in the eighth that produced nothing. And finally a runner at second with nobody out in the ninth who never made it home.
Colorado’s speed was a factor all night, with the Rockies stealing five bases and repeatedly using their legs to create pressure — even if one final aggressive decision ended up costing them in the ninth.
The Rockies finished with 15 hits, and 12 runners left on base.
Up next
The Rockies and Mariners continue their three-game set Saturday night at Coors Field, with first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m. MDT.
Seattle will send right-hander Bryce Miller to the mound. Miller is 4–9 with a 4.19 ERA and 106 strikeouts this season. The Rockies have not yet announced their starter.
Saturday will also be a big night at Coors Field as the Rockies unveil Todd Helton’s statue outside the ballpark before the game, and the first 15,000 fans through the gates will receive a Todd Helton replica statue.
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