Vibes Beat Rockies 8-6, Take Lead in Series
By Tyler Petersen
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Seven early runs and another outstanding performance from the bullpen locked in the 13th victory of the year for the Rocky Mountain Vibes.
The win is third in the series, ensuring at least a split in the series, and it pulls them out of last place in the Pioneer League, now tied for 9th with the Glacier Range Riders.
On "Christmas in July" day at the ballpark things were far from calm and bright at the nativity scene as Grand Junction once again scored in the top of the first – they've done so in all five games – on an RBI triple from Nico Popa and and RBI groundout from Caleb Farmer.
But like so many of the games in the series, Rocky Mountain had an immediate response. All nine in the lineup batted in the bottom of the first and scored four runs – a sac fly by Mike Annone, a two-run single by Ethan Lopez, and an RBI double by Luis Navarro.
Three more runs in the third for the Vibes from the bottom half of the order extended the lead – both Lopez and Navarro had another run-producing hit and Joe Encarnacion added his own RBI double in the inning.
Grand Junction wasn't going away; they added two more runs in the fourth and the fifth. Starter Brock Knoten, who came into the game with lower back tightness, got through 4.2 innings and exited with the lead in a 7-6 game.
Felipe Rodriguez came out of the bullpen in relief of Knoten and dealt. He got out of the fifth stranding a runner, had 1-2-3 innings in both the sixth and the seventh, then worked around two hits for a scoreless eighth. Rodriguez picked up his second win of the series, he is now 2-4 on the year.
In that top of the seventh, Shawn Ross attempted an audacious steal of home off Rodriguez and was thrown out at the plate. Rockies manager Bobby Jenks was ejected by the home plate umpire after arguing the out call.
The drama of the close game came to a boiling point in the ninth when closer Miguel Pozo came out for his third straight game of work. Leading off the ninth was Nico Popa. He hit a ball to Lopez who dove to make a great play but could not throw out Popa on a close play at first. Vibes manager Joe Mikulik came out to argue the call, aggrieved by both that call and a similar close play at first in the top of the eighth. Both Mikulik and Lopez were ejected.
After the dust settled, Andrew Hanson replaced Lopez at third, and Caleb Farmer stepped to the plate representing the tying run. Pozo walked him and it was two men on with nobody out.
Next up was Casey Petersen who grounded into a fielder's choice 3-6, putting runners on first and third with one out. Kent Rooklin was called in to pinch run for Petersen and promptly stole second. Runners were on second and third with one out and the Rockies had two shots to tie the game.
Pozo then went to best pitch, the wipe out slider, to wipe out Shawn Ross and strike him out swinging. Two outs in the ninth.
It was up to the left-handed hitting Josh Elvir against the righty Pozo. On two sliders Elivr swung and missed then grounded out to first for the final out of the game. Pozo shot an arrow into the sky – a la Fernando Rodney – and got his second save of the season.
As the players walked off there was some jawing from across the field as someone took exception to something. That's about as specific as I can get. There was shouting between the teams but it did not erupt further into anything more.
The final game of the series is tonight at 5:05 pm as the Vibes go for the series victory.
