Arenado, Rockies pound Giants 11-2
Denver, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - Nolan Arenado smacked a three-run homer to highlight an eight-run bottom of the fourth inning and the Colorado Rockies routed the San Francisco Giants 11-2 on Sunday in the finale of a four-game series.
Arenado finished a double shy of the cycle, going 4-for-5 with four RBI and three runs scored for the Rockies, who won the final two games of the series after dropping the first two.
Chad Bettis (1-0) struck out seven and allowed two runs on six hits and a pair of walks over 8 1/3 innings to pick up his second career win.
"I felt like I was the most convicted and aggressive with every single pitch this year," Bettis said.
Tim Hudson (2-4) surrendered eight runs on six hits and two walks over 3 2/3 frames for San Francisco, which has lost two straight on the heels of an eight-game winning streak.
"These were long games," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "It was good to get away with a split."
Colorado opened the scoring in the second inning when Arenado led off with a triple and scored on Ben Paulsen's groundout, then seized complete control in the fourth.
Arenado began the rally with a single and moved to second on Paulsen's groundout. Brandon Barnes was hit by a pitch and Arenado came home on Nick Hundley's single to right. Barnes scored on Daniel Descalso's grounder up the middle and Hundley was pushed across by Bettis' roller to shortstop.
Charlie Blackmon walked, Rafael Ynoa singled to load the bases and Troy Tulowitzki ripped a base hit to center to push across Descalso and Blackmon. Arenado then launched his three-run blast down the left field line off Jean reliever Machi to make it a 9-0 game.
The third baseman added an RBI single in the sixth and Hundley's run-scoring double in the seventh increased the margin to 11-0.
Brandon Belt's RBI double and Joe Panik's run-scoring single in the ninth capped the scoring.
Game Notes
Arenado recorded the fifth four-hit game of his career and hit his eighth homer of the season ... The Rockies were 7-for-13 with runners in scoring position, while the Giants finished 2-for-4.