The Rockies pick up their second win of the spring season, beating the Padres 7-5 courtesy of some solid relief pitching and timely hits.
The Colorado Rockies claimed a 7-5 victory over the San Diego Padres. A shaky start by Tyler Matzek saw the Rockies go down 4-0 early on, but the Rockies fought back to take the lead and held off the Padres.
Tyson Ross found himself in a bit of trouble in the top of the first, walking DJ LeMahieu and Drew Stubbs in order before the runners advanced after Corey Dickerson flew out to deep right-center. As has often been the case so far, however, the Rockies were unable to capitalize with runners in scoring position. Ross worked himself out of the inning by seeing off Matt McBride and Ben Paulsen.
Tyler Matzek struck out Wil Myers with a beautiful breaking ball to start the bottom of the first, but struggled mighty after, giving up a run on three straight singles before Yonder Alonso belted a ball to deep right-center for a three-run double. Down 4-0, Matzek would work himself out of a tough inning in which he gave up four runs on four hits in addition to a walk and a hit batter. He'd get two more outs in the second before being replaced by Jorge Rondon, who gave up a single before getting Jedd Gyorko to ground out to Charlie Culberson at short.
The Rockies would strike for two in the second. Tom Murphy reached on an infield single, despite a nice attempt by longtime Rockies player Clint Barmes, who was flashing the leather and making some really nice plays during the game. Gyorko flubbed a double play ball, allowing Murphy to take third as Hundley reached first on the error, setting up Rafael Ynoa who plated Murphy by slapping a slider into right field. Tyson Ross was replaced by Aaron Northcraft, who gave up a run on a DJ LeMahieu sac fly before closing out the inning.
The Rockies tacked on three more in the third after Charlie Culberson singled to plate Nick Hundley, who had doubled in Ben Paulsen and Tom Murphy.
The Gray Wolf was unleashed in the third, giving up a double before retiring the next three batters featuring a really nice play by Charlie Culberson and a three-pitch strikeout of Wil Nieves. In his second inning of work, Gray struck out Wil Myers for his second K with a hard, 96-mph fastball before striking out Maybin with an off-speed pitch and getting Kemp to fly out. All told, Jon Gray gave up one hit over two innings of work in which he struck out three while flashing his stuff. Awesome.
Chris Rusin had two innings of work, giving up a run and striking out one. The Rockies would add another in the sixth off of an RBI-single from Matt McBride, who drove in Rosell Herrera.
John Lannan pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth, striking out two and looking solid while doing so. An Audry Perez sac fly in the top of the ninth scored Ryan Casteel, who had doubled and then advanced on a wild pitch, putting the Rockies up for good. Yohan Flande closed out the game, getting Hunter Renfroe to ground into a double play after putting two on with one out.
Matzek struggled, but it's just Spring Training and he's gotta shake off the rust. His velocity looked good, and his breaking ball to strikeout Myers was pretty. The rest of the Rockies relief corps was solid, giving up just one run on eight hits after the Padres' four-run first inning.
The Rockies play the Reds tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 MST.