I have tickets to six Rockies games this season. So, I hope for two things with these tickets. The first is I get to attend all six games and the other is that I get to write about them. After last night, I’m one for one on attendance.
It has been cold and windy all week and my friend and I were afraid it would still be bad on Thursday night to see the Cubs visit the Rockies. Fortunately, the wind was minimal at the game. It was still cold but not that bad. My friend and I didn’t put on gloves until the 9th inning. We actually made it through the whole game. The game actually moved at a fairly good clip as it took 3 hours and 2 minutes. Just over my 3-hour limit. Not that anyone pays any attention to my limit.
We each got a Rockies Dog. This was a long hot dog with all kinds of stuff (like peppers, cheese, and onions) on it. Then the nice lady behind the counter said it also included tomatoes and asked if we wanted tomatoes. We said sure. This was a lot food to eat.
The Cubs jumped off to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first. After that they tried to help the Rockies back into the game with, let us call them “offbeat” plays. In the top of the third Yan Gomes of the Cubs hit a sacrifice fly. Except Seiya Suzuki must have thought it was going to be a hit and ran all the way to second from first. Blackman threw him out easily, so the runner from third didn’t score.
Later one of the Cubs batters hit a ball that looked like it was going foul. However, the Rockies 3rd baseman (Ryan McMahon) hustle and got to the ball before it went foul and easily threw out the runner. He easily threw out the runner because the batter didn’t run thinking the ball would just go foul. It is one of the few times a runner was thrown out at first by 95 feet, I hope.
Elias Diaz, the Rockies catcher, hit a catchable blooper to right field that should have been caught but wasn’t. It looked like the second baseman was going back but decided the ball was a little too far back for him. The right fielder thought the second baseman was going to catch it. He realized to late that wasn’t going to happen. The right fielder who happens to be named Seiya Suzuki almost threw out the runner at second who happened to be named Ryan McMahon. This looked like a possible big inning, but the next batter hit into a double play.
It was after the Rockies made an offbeat play of their own, that they finally scored. In the bottom of the fifth, with Yonathan Daza on second and Charlie Blackmon on first, Kris Bryant hit a line drive to left. However, Daza lost the ball and ran back to second. Left Fielder Ian Happ fielded the ball, waited for the third baseman to back close to third and threw Daza out at third in a very close play. He looked safe from our angle and one of the angles of the replay. However, another more positive angle he looked out. Also, to the ump he looked out. It was confusing to some fans as it was a force out at third. One lady behind us said he wasn’t close to tagging him. There was no argument from the Rockies dugout on the play. If Kris Bryant loses the batting crown by one hit he can thank Daza. That is a possibility after coming to Coors Field. It has happened to veteran players here before.
C.J. Cron followed with a double to score Blackmon for the first Rockies run. They added another later in the inning to pull within one. My friend talked between innings how that made the game more exciting as it was now a one run game. Frank Schwindel then hit a homerun leading off the top of the sixth to make it a two-run game. The Cubs added another run in the inning.
The next four innings the threatened to start rallies. They had one single every inning. They also stranded one runner every inning for a 5-2 Cubs rally. Still it was a fun game, which wasn’t as cold as we expected.
