DENVER – Dansby Swanson had two hits including a two-run double and Nick Markakis hit the longest home run he’s hit in his three seasons with the Braves.
But it took an eighth-inning error from a most unlikely source, Rockies four-time Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado, to help the Braves’ finally change their fortunes at Coors Field.
Brandon Phillips scored the go-ahead run from second base when Arenado bounced an errant throw to first on Tyler Flowers’ two-out grounder in the eighth inning, and the Braves held on for a 4-3 win that snapped their 11-game losing streak at Coors.
“We’ll take them any way we can get ‘em,” manager Brian Snitker said after the Braves evened the four-game series at a game apiece with their first win at Coors Field since June 10, 2014.
The Braves had gone 2-15 overall against the Rockies in that span – home and road – including four-game sweeps each of the past two seasons at Coors. They lost the series opener 3-0 after Julio Teheran pitched seven scoreless innings but the Braves went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and saw their bullpen falter in the eighth inning.
“It was a good bounce-back after last night,” said Swanson, who gave the Braves a 2-1 lead in the second inning with his two-out, two-run double on an 0-2 fastball from left-hander Kyle Freeland. “Getting shut out and then being able to put some runs on the board early definitely boosted the spirits a little bit.”
Rookie starter Sean Newcomb gave up a career-high three homers but all were with bases empty, and the Rockies got only two other hits against the big lefty in six innings. He had four walks (one intentional) and eight strikeouts and got a no decision, but the Braves snapped a streak of seven consecutive losses in his starts.
“You sort of expect it coming in here, deep fly balls kind of turn into home runs,” said Newcomb, who had allowed only one homer in his previous four road starts combined. “But I just put those (homers) behind me and kept attacking. I know they’ve got a lot of good people in the lineup so I knew I had to turn the (page) and get right after the next guy.”
The Rockies reclaimed the lead with solo homers in the fourth and fifth innings before Markakis tied the score with his two-out homer to center field in the sixth inning off Freelan, a long drive that cleared a fence that was nearly doubled in height before the 2016 season to decrease the number of homers at Coors.
It was his seventh home run of the season and third off a lefty in three seasons, and it sailed an estimated 429 feet.
After the Braves turned a nifty 3-6-3 double play following a leadoff single in the seventh inning – strong throws from Freddie Freeman and Swanson and a quick turn by the latter – the Braves took advantage of a rare mistake from the Rockies’ rock-solid third baseman Arenado in the eighth.
Phillips doubled against reliever Pat Neshak (3-3) with one out in the eighth and Freeman followed with a line drive that looked like it might land in the left-field corner for extra bases and a go-ahead RBI, but Gerardo Parra swooped in with a running catch. Phillips had to retreat to second.
But with two out, Flowers bounced a grounder to Arenado, who had plenty of time and bounced a throw that first baseman Reynolds couldn’t handle, allowing Phillips to come around and score as the ball caromed off Reynolds and toward the Rockies’ dugout.
Newcomb is 0-6 with a 5.02 ERA in seven home starts, but 1-1 with a 3.67 ERA in five road starts. He allowed only one homer in his previous road starts before facing the Coors Field test for the first time.
He’s received three runs of support or fewer in each of his first 12 major league starts.
“I liked how he kept pitching” after the homers, Snitker said. “Just got back into the next count and he battled through one inning and we let him go back out. I like when he’s had to battle through innings, then when we’ve sent him back out there he’s had a pretty good inning since he’s been here, he kind of rights himself. His stuff was good.”
He limited the long-ball damage to bases-empty homers to Arenado with two out in the first inning and to Mark Reynolds and Trevor Story to start the fourth and fifth innings. Those three have combined for 67 home runs this season including 24 for Reynolds and 27 for Arenado, who leads the majors with 101 RBIs.
Newcomb worked out of a jam in the fifth by inducing a pop-up from Arenado with two on for the second out and getting Parra on a line-out to left field — Danny Santana made a nice running catch — with bases loaded to end the inning. Then he pitched a perfect sixth inning and struck out the last two he faced, Carlos Gonzalez and Story.
Before Tuesday, the Braves’ last win at Coors Field was June 10, 2014, when they hit three homers in a 13-10 slugfest. Since then they were 0-for-Denver, totaling just 28 runs in 11 losses at arguably the most hitter-friendly ballparks in the majors, including more than three runs just once in an 8-4 loss last July.
They got to four again Tuesday, and this time it was just enough as Sam Freeman, Jose Ramirez and Arodys Vizcaino pitched a scoreless innings apiece with Vizcaino earning his fifth save in as many chances since taking over the closer duties from Jim Johnson at the beginning of August.
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