San Francisco, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Tyler Matzek pitched seven solid innings for his first career road win and the Colorado Rockies took advantage of Giants mistakes to down San Francisco, 3-2, in the opener of a four-game series.
Matzek (3-9) scattered eight hits and fanned seven to snap a five-start losing streak. The rookie left-hander had been 0-5 over his previous eight road games (seven starts).
The Rockies won their third in a row overall and beat the Giants for a fourth straight time.
Jake Peavy (2-4) yielded six hits and three runs — one earned — and had five strikeouts over seven innings. The veteran right-hander was clearly upset at the strike zone in the late innings, which ultimately led to the ejection of manager Bruce Bochy.
Andrew Susac homered for the Giants, who were hampered by four errors in their third straight defeat. They also grounded into four double plays.
San Francisco is a half-game ahead of Atlanta for the second wild card spot.
LaTroy Hawkins walked Michael Morse to start the bottom of the ninth, but then retired the next three hitters for his 21st save.
Peavy had words for Doug Eddings in the seventh inning after the home plate umpire squeezed the strike zone. A pitch that appeared right over the plate would have resulted in a strikeout of Matzek, who then walked on an offering just below the knees to put men on first and second. Charlie Blackmon then singled to right field and Hunter Pence’s throw home was on line. DJ LeMahieu was ruled safe on the slide and Matzek was then tagged out trying to come home. Replay overturned the first out call, keeping it a 3-2 game.
Pence singled to begin the home eighth. When Buster Posey was called out on a borderline low pitch from Adam Ottavino, Bochy came out of the dugout to argue and was then ejected. Pablo Sandoval grounded into a double play to end the inning.
"I didn’t like it. That’s why I wasn’t around to watch the rest of the game. It was a critical pitch," Bochy said of the pitch to Posey.
Blackmon scored on Justin Morneau’s sacrifice fly in the first, an inning in which the Giants committed a pair of errors. That included an errant pick-off throw by Peavy.
Posey singled to center to plate Angel Pagan in the bottom of the first, and Susac homered to center in the second for a 2-1 San Francisco lead.
The Rockies took advantage of more mistakes by the Giants in the fourth to go in front. Drew Stubbs reached first on a Brandon Crawford throwing error. Another Crawford throwing gaffe moved Stubbs to third when Morneau legged out an infield hit. Stubbs scored on a balk from Peavy. After Nolan Arenado singled, Corey Dickerson’s sacrifice fly to center made it 3-2.
"We’ve been getting rewarded for our hustle and we’ve turned it into runs several times the last two weeks," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "Wins have been tough to come by, but the guys have done a nice job."
Michael Morse tripled with one out in the bottom of the fourth, but Matzek escaped trouble with a strikeout and a groundout around a walk to Susac.
"I think you have to look at our play early. It was a little awkward," Bochy said. "It was just not a well-played game. It caught up with us."
Game Notes
Before the game, the Giants optioned infielder Adam Duvall to Fresno and recalled pitcher George Kontos from the Triple-A club … This was the first of 13 straight games against NL West opponents for the Rockies … Peavy has 1,997 career strikeouts … The Rockies won for only the fourth time in their last 27 road games since sweeping a three-game set against the Giants in San Francisco from June 13-15.
August 26, 2014 at 10:19AM
Source/Credit: Fox News
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