Chad Bettis entered Friday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies perfect, in a sense. He very nearly left it in another.

The Rockies have not lost with Bettis on the bump in 2015. After Friday’s 4-1 victory at Citizen’s Bank Park, that streak remains intact. Bettis picked up his second consecutive victory, topping a career-best outing on Sunday against the defending World Champions, San Francisco.

On Friday, Bettis was simply spectacular. His final line was eight innings pitched, two hits, no runs, no base on balls and seven strikeouts.

Troy Tulowitzki continued his hot hitting in Philadelphia, going 4-for-4 with two solo home runs and providing all the offense Bettis would need. Ben Paulsen added a two-run homer in the ninth to offer some insurance.

Bettis was perfect through the sixth when Ben Revere led off the seventh with a chopper up the middle. With the shift on, Tulowitzki made a play on the ball, but came up just a hair early and the ball missed his glove and kicked off his feet. The play was scored an error and Bettis retired the next three batters to keep the no-hit bid intact.

And while it potentially saved the no-hitter in the seventh, the shift would prove to be his undoing in the eighth inning as Cody Asche singled a ball through the left side of the infield with one out in the eighth to end Bettis’s chance at history.

The shift giveth – see Tulowitzki’s play (among several like it), and a sixth-inning liner to left snagged by D.J. LeMahieu – and the shift taketh away.

Carlos Ruiz singled later in the eighth, but Philadelphia could muster no runs for Cole Hamels, who has been quietly dominant for some time. In fact, of pitchers with more than 1,000 innings since 2010, only Clayton Kershaw and Felix Hernandez have lower ERAs than Hamels.

But it was not Hamels’ night, as John Axford came on in the ninth to earn his ninth save – an interesting, but successful, effort.

Colorado goes for the series win on Saturday afternoon. Jorge De La Rosa looks to even his record to 2-2 against Aaron Harang. First pitch is 1:10 p.m. MDT.