Rockies squander 3-0 lead but rally in ninth to beat Guardians

Rockies Report, Game 106:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Ten Rockies came to the plate and four of them came home in a wild ninth-inning rally that saw the Rockies score four runs to overturn a 5-4 deficit before hanging on for an 8-6 win over the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on Monday night.

The comeback was necessary because Jake Bird, dominant for the first two-and-a-half months of the season, continued his descent over the last month and a half since being shelled at Atlanta on June 13. That Friday the 13th sent him into a tailspin from which he has yet to recover.

Monday night, Bird entered in the seventh inning with a 3-0 lead after Bradley Blalock threw six shutout innings. He walked Nolan Jones and Brayan Rocchio before an 0-2 sweeper to Bo Naylor hung in the heart of the zone and landed 406 away in the right-field stands.

With that, Blalock’s lead was gone.

Bird yielded a 3-2 single to Steven Kwan before being relieved in favor of Victor Vodnik, who loaded the bases with a single and an intentional walk after a wild pitch before walking in a run to put the Guardians in front. A Daniel Schneemann single extended Cleveland’s lead to 5-3.

But Hunter Goodman began the Rockies’ comeback with a solo home run in the eighth inning. Then in the ninth, Cleveland closer Cade Smith found himself in the same spot of bother as Bird, yielding a ground-rule double to Warming Bernabel that got caught in the fencing by the left-field scoreboard, commiting a throwing error that allowed Bernabel to score and Brenton Doyle to reach after a sacrifice bunt, and then plunking Kyle Farmer before recording an out. Smith then yielded an RBI single to Tyler Frreman before Tim Herrin relieved him.

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Mickey Moniak and Goodman finished the job with a sacrifice fly and a double off the top of the outfield wall to extend Colorado’s lead to 8-5.

The game started two and a half hours late because of rain and didn’t end until 12:12 a.m. EDT.

Colorado is 28-78.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Blalock was dominant once the weather cleared, mowing down the Guardians and holding them to six hits without a walk over six innings.

Effectiveness was nothing new; it was the third consecutive start in which he held the opponent to two or fewer earned runs while going at least five innings. But this marked the first time that he went a full six innings as a major-league starter, thus giving him the first quality start of his career.

But after Bird was shelled, Blalock’s win was gone.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Seth Halvorsen struck out Rocchio with ex-Rockies outfielder Jones on second base in the bottom of the ninth.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 4 — Number of Colorado players with two hits apiece as Freeman, Goodman, Beck and Bernabel each did so. Freeman’s 2-for-4 night snapped him out of a recent slump.

WHAT’S NEXT: Tanner Gordon looks to continue his recent form for the Rockies. Logan Allen starts for the Guardians. First pitch is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. MDT.

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