The Rockies’ May resurgence rests on their starting pitching, and Ty Blach has been central to the revival.
The Denver native began the season at Triple-A Albuquerque, got called up as a reliever, and was inserted into the starting rotation out of necessity.
Now he’s pitching like he should have been in there all along.
Wednesday night, the veteran left-hander pitched seven solid innings, setting the table for Colorado’s 7-4 win over Cleveland at Coors Field in front of an announced crowd of 21,374.
“You can’t control so many things in this game,” Blach said when asked about his trip from the minors to the majors this season. “I thought I threw the ball pretty well in the rotation last season, and that gave me a lot of confidence. And I know I can pitch in this ballpark and adapt to the altitude changes. So I’m going to continue to refine my craft and do the best I can to help this team win baseball games.”
Manager Bud Black said Blach’s ability to keep cool is a big key to Blach’s success.
“Ty doesn’t panic,” Black said. “He keeps his composure, he stays calm. He was frustrated after the first inning, but he knew that there was a lot of baseball left. And the way we’ve been swinging the bats, I’m sure he felt like, ‘Hey, if I can hang in there, we’re going to come back.’ ”
After a miserable April, the Rockies have been a different team this month. They have won four of their last six series and 12 of their last 19 games. Plus, they have won eight of their last 10 games at Coors, with all of those victories coming against teams currently over .500 teams.
Blach got plenty of support from an offense that is finally starting to heat up. Colorado scorched Cleveland for six runs in the second inning, sending 10 men to the plate and rapping out five hits.
Brendan Rodgers’ two-run homer to left off shaky lefty starter Logan Allen was the big blow. The Rockies also got RBI doubles from Jacob Stallings and Elias Diaz, a bloop RBI single from Hunter Goodman and a sacrifice fly from Sean Bouchard.
Rodgers homered for the first time since April 23, a drought to 29 homerless games that was the fourth-longest of his career. He also extended his hitting streak to eight games, during which he’s slashed .323/.344/.484.
The Rockies’ first run came in the first when Ezequiel Tovar led off with a walk, took second a wild pitch and scored on Ryan McMahon’s pop-up single to left.
Allen, who stuck around for just 1 2/3 innings, allowed a career-high tying seven runs while making the shortest start of his career.
In stark contrast, Blach’s seven innings, as well as his five strikeouts, were season highs. He allowed six hits and two walks, but the Guardians barely laid a glove on him after the first inning. The Regis Jesuit graduate is 2-1 with a 3.42 ERA in four starts at Coors this season.
Wednesday marked Blach’s second quality start in a row. Last Friday against Philadelphia, he allowed two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.
Blach’s critical test came with two outs in a first inning in which he threw 31 pitches.
The Guardians had already scored two runs and packed the bases when Blach issued back-to-back walks to Jonathan Rodriguez and Gabriel Arias. Blach is not known as a strikeout pitcher by any means, but he whiffed Austin Hedges on four pitches, fanning him with an 81.7 mph changeup.
“That strikeout was huge,” Black said. “That was so big — bases loaded, two outs. A hit there, and the whole world changes. But from that point on, I thought the changeup came into play, and the fastball came into play. Ty threw some fastballs at the top of the zone, and he broke some bats with inside (pitches).”
The Rockies only had nine hits, but batted 3 for 6 with runners in scoring position and struck out a season-low three times.
For a nice change of pace, there was not excessive late-inning drama from Colorado’s bullpen.
Jalen Beeks pitched a perfect eighth inning before Tyler Kinley gave up two runs in the ninth. His third-strike wild pitch allowed Rodriguez to reach first. Rodriguez came around to score on Will Brennan’s single.
Brennan took second on defensive indifference and scored on Brayan Rocchio’s single. But with two runners on base, Kinley struck out Andres Gimenez to end the game.
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The Rockies are off on Thursday. They begin a three-game series against the Dodgers on Friday in Los Angeles.
Pitching probables
Friday: Rockies RHP Dakota Hudson (1-7, 5.54 ERA) at Dodgers RHP Walker Buehler (1-2, 4.26), 8:10 p.m.
Saturday: Rockies RHP Cal Quantrill (4-3, 3.53) at Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (5-3, 3.51), 8:10 p.m.
Sunday: Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (1-2, 2.76) at Dodgers RHP Gavin Stone (5-2, 3.16), 2:10 p.m.
