DENVER _ After taking a two-hit shutout to the eighth inning against the Rockies on Saturday in Atlanta, Braves pitcher Mike Foltynewicz carried a one-hit shutout into the sixth against same team Thursday at Coors Field.
In both cases, the next three batters reached base, and both times all ended up scoring. This time they scored while Foltynewicz was still in the game, on one swing of Carlos Gonzalez's bat.
Gonzalez's mammoth three-run homer with none out in the sixth snapped a scoreless tie and sent the Rockies to a 7-3 win to open a four-game series. It was Colorado's 11th win in 13 games against the Braves going back to June 2014, including three wins in four games over the past seven days.
The Rockies scored three runs (one earned) against rookie Mauricio Cabrera in an eventful eighth inning, when shortstop Erick Aybar was charged with an error for interfering with base runner Daniel Descalso and catcher A.J. Pierzynski was ejected by home-plate umpire Mike Winters for arguing the call.
Cabrera hit Trevor Story with a pitch to start the inning, then walked Descalso. Both advanced on a sacrifice before Nick Hundley singled to drive in Story and Descalso nearly ran into Aybar as the shortstop moved toward the ball going past. Descalso was tagged out at the plate, but the interference ruling erased that and the Rockies lead was stretched to 7-1.
Pierzynski's RBI double in the seventh had gotten the Braves on the board and cut the lead to 3-1, but the Rockies pushed it back to three runs on a towering pinch-hit homer by Mark Reynolds in the bottom of the seventh, a blast to center field off left-hander Hunter Cervenka that traveled an estimated 484 feet.
Pierzynski replacement Anthony Recker had an RBI single in the ninth, and the Braves final run scored on an Aybar groundout. The Braves were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position before the ninth inning, when Ender Inciarte and Recker collected hits in those situations after an Adonis Garcia double.
Foltynewicz (3-4) gave up four hits, three runs and five walks with five strikeouts in 52/3 innings, the third time in his past four road starts that he allowed five earned runs and at least one homer.
Rockies starter Chad Bettis (8-6) allowed four hits and one run in 62/3 innings, with three walks. The Braves failed to score after Nick Markakis' leadoff single in the second and Gordon Beckham's leadoff double in the fourth.
They had two on with one out in the fourth before Garcia lined out to right field and Inciarte struck out.
Freddie Freeman went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and is 2-for-27 with one RBI and 15 strikeouts in his past seven games. In his past nine games against the Rockies, he's 1-for-33 with no RBIs and 14 strikeouts.
Foltynewicz has made significant progress this season and entered Thursday's game on the best run of his career, with a 3.27 ERA in his previous nine starts and a .215 opponents' average in the past six.
He recorded 15 strikeouts and two walks in 14 innings over his past two starts before Thursday, and the only three runs charged to him in those games came in the eighth inning Saturday against the Rockies. Two of those runs scored against the bullpen after Foltynewicz left the game.
He was locked in a groove again early, allowing just one base runner through three innings, that on a walk. In the fourth, Foltynewicz gave up a leadoff single, two walks and a wild pitch, but Pierzynski threw out Story trying to steal second base for the second out and Foltynewicz got out of the inning unscathed.
He struck out two in a perfect fifth inning, but Foltynewicz walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth, Charlie Blackmon. And as leadoff walks often do, the mistake proved costly.
After an infield single by DJ LeMahieu, Gonzalez crushed a 97-mph fastball on a 1-1 count. It sailed an estimated 459 feet, or would've if it hadn't smashed into the wall beyond the bullpen, far beyond right-center field. The Rockies raised a clear plexiglass wall above the right-center fence this year to cut down on homers to that area, but another 20-foot extension might've been necessary.
