Rockies Register

PEORIA– A close game throughout the entire afternoon, the Seattle Mariners rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth to escape with a win over the Colorado Rockies Monday.  Both starting pitchers got roughed up for most of the day despite being left in for a significant portion of the game.

Jorge De La Rosa of Colorado pitched six innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits with only two strikeouts.  Seattle got to him early scoring two runs in their first inning at the plate.  He allowed another run in the third as well as in the fifth.  Rosa’s last earned run came in the sixth, surrendering a solo shot to Justin Smoak.  Seattle’s starter, Jason Vargas, also struggled on the mound going five innings and allowing five runs on eleven hits with two strikeouts.

Colorado broke the 5-5 tie in seventh with a run, and put the game in the bullpen’s hand to shutdown the Mariners in the hopes of earning win number 21 this spring.  But Seattle was not finished as they compiled a two-run comeback victory in the ninth inning.  Justin Smoak, who homered off Rosa earlier, started the rally with a single to left.  Michael Saunders followed with another single that tied the game 6-6 as Smoak scored on a fielding error by Bronson Sardinha, placing Saunders at third base.  Saunders later scored the game winning run on a single from Steven Baron, his third of the spring.

Brandon League earned the win for Seattle as Matt Belisle’s blown save for Colorado gave him the loss as he was the one to sacrifice the two runs to give Seattle the 7-6 victory.

SCOTTSDALE– The Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks met up again, as Arizona hoped to get their first home win at Salt River Fields.  Diamondback fans may not be happy with the last two results against the Rockies, but they cannot deny that the games have not been enjoyable as both have been a battle till the final out of the game.

Colorado built an early two-run lead in the first inning after Dexter Fowler singled to start the game and scored the first run on Jonathan Herrera’s triple.  Charlie Blackmon drove in Herrera on his RBI ground-out.  Jhoulys Chacin, one of Colorado’s other guaranteed starters, threw two-innings of no hit baseball and got the deserving win as the Rockies never lost the lead during the game, escaping with a 6-5 victory.

Arizona would not go away through, as they kept pulling within a run of Colorado, and threatening to take the lead.  Arizona cut the Rockies lead in half in the bottom of the fifth when Brandon Allen crossed home on a ground-out by Gerardo Parra.  Colorado responded in the seventh adding three more runs, but, would need the extra run scored in the top of the eighth inning as Arizona scored four runs in their last nine outs at the plate, who fell a run short of sending another game to extras.  That extra run by Thomas Field in the eighth was vital as Keith Weiser allowed a run in the ninth, which evidently would have been the game tying run.  However, he shook it off, and closed the game out to earn the save and give Colorado its second win over Arizona in three days.