The Colorado Rockies have beat the Texas Rangers 4 -2 at Coors Field on Friday the day after beating the San Francisco Giants 9 – 1 to string two back-to-back wins for the first time in the 2024 season. This accomplishment may have come after 38 games, but fans are desperate to find anything to celebrate this season.
The two heroes of Friday’s game are Charlie Blackmon and Austin Gomber. First off, Blackmon’s bat is back, and it has been giving the Rockies the clutch action they have needed to win games. In Friday’s game, Blackmon brought a big hit in the bottom of the eighth with two outs to drive in two runs with a stand-up double. That hit was enough to put the Rockies ahead of the World Champion Rangers heading into the ninth and amass a lead that would be held by Jalen Beeks to finish the game. Blackmon was in a slump for the last three weeks going 2-for-15 on the road, but Chuck Nazty has returned to his old ways going 5-for-9 this week at home.
Gomber may seem like an unlikely second hero of the day since he is not credited with the win, and he did give up a homerun in the sixth to launch the tense final innings of back-and-forth lead changes. What fans should pay attention to is that before that homerun, Gomber had a 14-inning scoreless streak going, which included seven strikeouts in Friday’s game. This new record replaces the club’s previous scoreless pitching streak set back in 2021. In Spring Training this year, there was some questioning and apprehension about Gomber’s ability to deliver in the starting rotation. The irony is that now fans are feeling the fortune tellers had it backwards because Gomber is showing dominance from the mound and Kyle Freeland was being dominated by hitters before his injury.
The first game in this series against the Rangers had strong performances by Brenton Doyle on the base paths for another stolen base added to his tally. Strong defensive performances like Brendan Rodgers diving snag at second with a perfect throw from his knees to first for the out in the top of the third inning, or Jake Cave’s beautifully executed throw from the leftfield wall to get the out at second robbing Jonah Heim of a double, were both the kinds of exciting baseball fans want to see. However, the play of the game had to be Sean Bouchard’s diving catch when he ran full speed to shallow right gloving the ball mere inches above the ground, and effectively shutting down the Ranger’s hopes for a rally.
Overall, a strong showing by the Rockies. The only obvious weak spot in Friday’s performance was from the Rockies’ closer Justin Lawrence who is even failing to perform as a reliable middle-reliever now. Lawrence has struggled to get outs over his appearances this season, and Friday’s showing was more of the same. For his 0.1 inning pitched Lawrence still earned a 5.40 ERA. Beeks seems to have taken over Lawrence’s closing spot lately and earned his second save of the season.
The Rockies’ pitching overall is beginning to blossom, and fans are eager to see if Ryan Feltner can help extend the winning streak in front of the hometown crowd on Saturday.
