After what can only be described as a rough start to the season for Tyler Anderson, the Colorado Rockies saw a significant improvement from their regular starter in a 9-1 beatdown of the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday in Denver.
“It’s one of those things where he got stronger as the game went on, and that happens sometimes,” manager Bud Black said of the skipper’s performance. “I think the key tonight was the effective use of change that we talked about and the cutter that you talked about this afternoon.”
For Anderson, nearly everything went right in his second win of the season.
“You saw the three-pitch mix, use of the change, he got the fastball by some of their hitters later in the game at the top of the zone,” Black said. “He threw some low fastballs at the outside corner. That needs to be done by every starting pitcher in baseball–at the knees, on the corner, away.”
Prior to Saturday night, during which Anderson only surrendered a single run to the Snakes, he bore a 7.71 ERA across 30.3 innings, or six games. He claimed responsibility for four of those, only escaping those outings with one win.
“I think [it was] just more quality strikes, attacking down better,” Anderson said. “I think just in general, I did a better job mixing than I had in the past, so I used that more. Part of it was throwing strikes in good, quality locations, which I haven’t really been doing.”
After a three-strikeout sixth inning, Anderson exited the game, as he tied his career high mark for 10 strikeouts in a single outing, which he did first against the Brewers last August.
Reliever Chris Rusin came in to finish the job from the sixth to the ninth innings with his first three-inning save and was equally–if not more–ruthless than Anderson was, not giving up one single run.
In a shock to no one, first baseman Mark Reynolds catalyzed the offense once again, when he sent a ball over the left field wall for a two-run jack, giving the Rockies a 4-0 edge before the D-backs had a chance to respond. On the other side of the ball, he produced quality defense by catching everything that Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story threw at him, literally.
“It’s just one of those things sometimes,” Reynolds said. “Baseball players get on streaks sometimes, and I just happened to start the year. I’m well aware of the roller coasters in this game, I’ve been on them all. I’m just trying to stay with my approach, stay with my work before games and translate to the field.”
Nearly all of the Rockies who took the field on Saturday saw a piece of the offensive action, as seven of the starting nine reached to score. With those kind of weapons in this team’s arsenal, the Rockies have the potential to be very dangerous against any team they will face this year.
With the win, the Rockies improved to 19-12 on the season, stealing the first place divisional spot from none other than the Diamondbacks, who fell to 18-14. Next up, the two teams will battle it out on Sunday at 1:10 to see who takes the series (and the glory).
