San Francisco Giants vs Colorado Rockies Box Score on Sep 05, 2017

The Sports Xchange
Sep 6, 2017

DENVER -- Using the relief corps the entire game, the Colorado Rockies continued their dominance over the San Francisco Giants with a 9-6 victory Tuesday night.

The win enabled the Rockies to increase their lead over Milwaukee to 2 1/2 games for the second National League wild-card spot. The Brewers dropped their second straight game at Cincinnati, losing 9-3 to the Reds.

The Giants fell to 0-9 at Coors Field this season and haven't won there since Sept. 6, 2016. The last time the Giants lost nine games in a row on the road to one team was at Atlanta from April 13, 1994, through April 3, 1996.

The Giants staged a comeback, scoring two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth to whittle the Rockies' lead to one run.

With the tying run at first base and two outs in the eighth, Adam Ottavino came on to face Buster Posey. Ottavino fell behind 3-0 but struck him out on seven pitches, the last a cutter that Posey waived at as it broke well off the plate.

RBI doubles by pinch hitter Carlos Gonzalez and DJ LeMahieu in the eighth made it 9-6.

With no one holding down the No. 5 starter's spot, the Rockies by design went to a bullpen game when that turn came up Tuesday. A vital September game had Cactus League overtones as Colorado shuttled nine pitchers to the mound.

The last was Greg Holland, who secured his first save since Aug. 24 and his 37th in 41 chances.

Tyler Chatwood, who began the season in Colorado's Opening Day rotation but was since demoted, made his first start since Aug. 2. The Rockies thought he would be good for about 60 pitches. He held the Giants scoreless for three innings but needed 61 pitches to do it.

Chris Rusin (4-0), who followed Chatwood to the mound and gave up one run in 1 2/3 innings, was the winning pitcher.

A four-run sixth gave the Rockies a 6-1 lead. The rally included run-scoring doubles by Nolan Arenado, Mark Reynolds and Ian Desmond and Jonathan Lucroy's run-scoring single.

Arenado, who led the majors in RBIs each of the past two years, has 112 RBI, tying him with Miami's Giancarlo Stanton for the major league lead. Arenado had three hits Tuesday.

Posey doubled home two runs with one out in the seventh against Antontio Senzatela to make it 6-3. Zac Rosscup then got Brandon Crawford to fly out, and Pat Neshek retired Hunter Pence to end the inning.

The Rockies tacked on a run in the seventh on Gerardo Parra's infield single as his grounder went off the glove of diving first baseman Ryder Jones.

With two outs in the eighth, the Giants scored three runs. Denard Span drove in two runs with an opposite-field double to left with two outs after Jake McGee issued a leadoff walk and allowed a two-out single to Mac Williamson.

Joe Panik followed Span with a run-scoring single up the middle. Panik's fourth hit trimmed Colorado's lead to 7-6 and set up Ottavino's confrontation with Posey.

Giants starter Ty Blach (8-12), who was born and raised in Denver, gave up five hits and five runs in 5 1/3 innings. He fell to 0-5 with a 7.90 ERA in his past five starts.

The Giants have lost eight of their past nine games, 10 of their past 12 and 17 of their past 21. Their 22-49 road record is the worst in the NL, and they are 3-17-3 in series on the road.

The Rockies will try to sweep the series Wednesday and win three straight for the first time since Aug. 3-5. They have won six of their past 16 games.

NOTES: Giants 3B Pablo Sandoval, who went 0-for-4 with a walk, is hitless in his past 37 at-bats. ... Rockies 2B DJ LeMahieu extended his season-high hitting streak to 13 games. ... Rockies RHP Shane Carle was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque. ... Giants RHP Roberto Gomez had his contract selected from Triple-A Sacramento and made his major league debut, as did RHP Reyes Moronta, who was recalled from that team. To make room on the 40-man roster for Gomez, OF Carlos Moncrief was designated for assignment. OF Austin Slater (right groin strain) was reinstated from the 10-day disabled list. ... Rockies C Ryan Hanigan (left groin strain) threw to the bases for the first time since he got hurt Aug. 20. ... Rockies INF/OF Ryan Desmond and Giants C Buster Posey were nominated by their teams for the 2017 Roberto Clemente Award.