Colorado 5, San Francisco 3
When: 9:10 PM ET, Saturday, May 23, 2015
Where: Coors Field, Denver, Colorado
Temperature:
45°
Umpires:
Home -
Paul Nauert, 1B -
Ed Hickox, 2B -
Mike Estabrook, 3B -
Marcus Pattillo
Attendance:
30180
By The Sports Xchange
DENVER -- David Hale will head back to Triple-A Albuquerque knowing he impressed the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night.
Hale pitched into the seventh inning in his Rockies debut and Daniel Descalso hit a rare home run as Colorado beat the San Francisco Giants 5-3 to split their day-night doubleheader and end the Giants' eight-game winning streak.
The Rockies added Hale to their roster as the 26th player for the twin bill. He pitched 6 2/3 innings, just the eighth time a Colorado starter has lasted into the seventh this year.
"It kind of felt like an audition," Hale said. "I'm glad I took advantage of it."
Descalso, starting the second game at shortstop, hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning against Giants starter Yusmeiro Petit with the score tied at 2. It was the second homer of the season for Descalso, who stepped to the plate with 11 career home runs in 1,438 plate appearances.
The Giants won the first game of the doubleheader 10-8, scoring all their runs with two outs. First baseman Brandon Belt, right fielder Hunter Pence and shortstop Brandon Crawford, the 4-5-6 hitters, combined to go 6-for-15 with seven RBIs and four runs.
After the Giants scored 16 consecutive runs with two outs in the series, the Rockies gave them a taste of their own medicine when Descalso connected with two outs for his homer. He lofted a first-pitch changeup from Petit (1-1) into the right-field stands to give the Rockies a 4-2 lead.
"Two outs, I had a hole open on the right side," Descalso said. "I was just trying to get something to pull through that hole, and he threw me a change-up up out over the plate and I was able to drive it into the seats."
That proved to be the final inning for Petit, who was making a spot start after 13 relief appearances to begin the season.
"That was a gutty effort," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "He gave us a chance to win. Their guy, he threw the ball well, too."
Hale (1-0) threw 66 of 97 pitches for strikes and didn't issue a walk. He got seven outs on ground balls in three innings and two more during the balance of his outing.
"He gave us a huge boost," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "A great performance by David stepping in. It's a tough assignment. He pounded the strike zone, had a good sinker, had a real good changeup."
Hale (1-0) gave up an opposite-field bloop single to center fielder Gregor Blanco to open the seventh inning. He retired the next two batters, but Pence hit a pinch-single to right. Blanco dashed to third on the play and scored to make it 4-3.
Brooks Brown, who was activated from the disabled list before the doubleheader, relieved Hale. Making his first appearance for the Rockies since May 3, Brown ended the inning by getting left fielder Nori Aoki to fly out.
In the seventh, the Giants elected to intentionally walk right fielder Carlos Gonzalez so left-hander Jeremy Affeldt could pitch to left-handed-hitting Ben Paulsen with two outs and second baseman DJ LeMahieu, who had drawn a one-out walk, on third. But the strategy backfired when Paulsen lined a run-scoring single to center to give the Rockies a 5-3 lead.
Rockies reliever John Axford gave up a leadoff single in the ninth to Blanco, who stole second. Pinch-hitter Angel Pagan flied to center fielder Charlie Blackmon, who threw out Blanco as he tried to advance to third standing up.
Descalso made an error on third baseman Casey McGehee's grounder, but Axford got Pence to ground into a game-ending force play to post his sixth save.
Aoki had tied the score at 2 with a single in the fifth. On the hit, McGehee tried to score from second ahead of Gonzalez's throw. Home plate umpire Paul Nauert called McGehee safe, but the Rockies challenged and the call was overturned when it showed that McGehee's front foot was in the air and not on the plate when he crossed it.
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