Rockies Pound Pirates After Returning From Road Trip
DENVER (The Sports Xchange) - Jorge De La Rosa restored order for the Colorado Rockies on Thursday.
He took over for faltering starter Chad Bettis and pitched four perfect innings as the Rockies defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 11-5.
The Pirates had won eight straight games at Coors Field, a streak that De La Rosa was instrumental in ending.
He made his 65th major league relief appearance, and the four innings are his longest stint out of the bullpen. Only one of the 12 batters he faced hit a ball to the outfield as De La Rosa struck out five and threw 31 of 47 pitches for strikes.
De La Rosa (2-4) was the Rockies' opening day starter but was demoted to the bullpen after going 1-4 with an 11.41 ERA in six outings. He pitched two innings in each of his first two relief appearances and came to Bettis' rescue after he squandered nearly all of a five-run lead in the fourth.
Pirates starter Jeff Locke (5-4) was the winning pitcher when he worked six scoreless innings against the Rockies at Coors Field on April 25 and had won four straight starts for the first time in his career. But Locke was in trouble from the start Thursday as the Rockies pounced on him for four straight hits to open a four-run first and scored two more in each of the second and fourth before driving him from the game after 4 2/3 innings in a three-run fifth.
Locke allowed 11 hits and 11 runs.
DJ LeMahieu had two hits, three RBIs and scored three runs. Nolan Arenado had three hits and two RBIs, and Charlie Blackmon and Ryan Raburn each drove in two runs. De La Rosa's bases-loaded sacrifice netted the first run in the fifth, and Blackmon got out in front of a changeup and floated a two-run, two-out single into right-center that made it 11-5 and finished Locke.
LeMahieu hit a two-run homer in the fourth, giving the Rockies an 8-5 edge. He doubled home a run in the first. Raburn tripled home two and scored on a ground out.
Arenado's two-run double with two outs in the second put the Rockies ahead 6-1. Betts, though, gave most of that lead back as he continued to struggle.
He allowed five runs (four earned) and seven hits in three innings. It was the third time in four starts Bettis has failed to pitch five innings, and in that stretch, he is 0-3 with an 11.57 ERA while yielding 32 hits, including six homers.
Bettis gave up an unearned run in the first after shortstop Trevor Story made a low throw on what could have been a double play ball hit by Gregory Polanco. The error moved him to second, and Starling Marte singled him home.
Bettis gave up a three-run homer to David Freese in the third after yielding a leadoff single to Andrew McCutchen and hitting Marte with a pitch. Josh Harrison followed Freese's fifth homer with a double and scored on Chris Stewart's two-out single that trimmed the Rockies' lead to 6-5.
De La Rosa came on in the fourth to shut down the Pirates and help the Rockies win for the fourth time in five games.
NOTES: The game was a makeup of a rained-out game originally scheduled April 28. ... Pirates RHP Jameson Taillon was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis after making his major league debut on Wednesday night and LHP Kyle Lobstein was recalled from Indianapolis. Lobstein is in his third stint this season with the Pirates ... Rockies C Tony Wolters (concussion) is scheduled to play rehab games Friday and Saturday with Triple-A Albuquerque. ... Rockies RF Carlos Gonzalez was not in the lineup. On Wednesday, he became the first player in franchise history to strike out four times in consecutive games.