The Colorado Rockies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 behind a three-RBI day from Michael McKenry, in the first game of a doubleheader at Coors Field on Tuesday.
In need of a spot starter, the Dodgers turned to reliever Juan Nicasio—who entered Tuesday 1-1 with a 1.29 ERA—to make his first start of the season. Nicasio allowed one run—an RBI infield single to Daniel Descalso—on three hits in two innings of work, before being replaced by Ian Thomas.
Jorge De La Rosa, who came in with a 1-2 record and 6.51 ERA, returned to the mound after missing a few starts with a cut on his middle finger and had himself a solid outing. He allowed three runs, on four hits and walked four in six innings, indicating that the injury is behind him.
The southpaw gave up a 477-foot bomb to Joc Pederson—his 15th of the season—with a man aboard in the third inning that put Los Angeles ahead 2-1.
McKenry then answered with a two-run shot of his own—his third of the year—off Thomas in the bottom of the fourth, giving Colorado a 3-2 lead.
De La Rosa got into some trouble in the top of the fifth inning and needed 41 pitches to get out of the frame.
He walked Adrian Gonzalez to force in the tying run with the bases loaded, but limited the damage by getting the next bater, Howie Kendrick, to ground out and end the inning.
In the bottom half of the frame, the scorching Nolan Arenado gave Colorado the lead again with an RBI single. McKenry followed by driving in his third run of the game with an RBI double to left-center field, extending Colorado’s lead to 5-3 lead.
Ben Paulsen capped the scoring with a solo home run in the seventh inning, providing the Rockies with an insurance run they wound up not needing.
John Axford finished things off with his 10th save of the season. He’s 10-for-10 in save opportunities in 2015.
The Rockies improved to 23-27 with the win and are now 6.5 games behind the 30-21 first-place Dodgers.
With the second-half of the doubleheader still to come, and another game against Los Angeles on Wednesday night, Colorado has an opportunity to gain some ground in the NL West race.
First pitch of the nightcap is set for 8:40 p.m. ET on Tuesday at Coors Field. Zack Greinke (5-1, 1.48 ERA) starts for Los Angeles and will try to go deep into the ball game since the Dodgers needed six innings out of their bullpen in the first game.
David Hale—who allowed two runs in 6.2 innings in his season debut against the San Francisco Giants last week—takes the mound for Colorado, as it looks to sweep the doubleheader.
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