ARLINGTON, Texas — You don’t mess with a Texan, especially when he gets ticked off.
The Rangers discovered that Friday night when Rockies right-hander Chad Bettis, the Lubbock native who played at Texas Tech, rebounded from a truly awful first inning to play a key part in Colorado’s 9-5 victory at Globe Life Park.
The Rockies, now 23-16 on the road, were in dire need of a victory, having lost two of three at Philadelphia and 10 of their last 13 coming in.
It helped that the Rockies’ offense, spearheaded by a two-homer night by former Ranger Ian Desmond, ripped Texas for 13 hits. Desmond became the first Rockies player to ever homer twice at Texas and the first Colorado hitter with a multi-homer Interleague road game since Charlie Blackmon at Yankee Stadium in 2016.
Important, too, was the performance by the bullpen. Harrison Musgrave, Adam Ottavino and Wade Davis combined to pitch 3 ⅓ scoreless innings. Ottavino, back from the disabled list and making his first appearance since May 27, gave up a walk and hit a batter but got out of the eighth inning unscathed.
Colorado’s six-run second inning off left-hander Yohander Mendez, who was making his big-league debut, featured: Leadoff homer by Desmond, RBI singles from DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story and a two-run double by Nolan Arenado, who was coming off a rare day off.
Arenado’s double snapped a 19 at-bat hitless streak, the longest of his career. He doubled again in the seventh and scored on Story’s double to the gap in right-center. Arenado added a solo homer in the ninth, his 13th of the season. Story a native of nearby Irving, finished the game 2-for-5, continuing a surge that has lifted his average to .272.
For Bettis, the first inning was a disaster of Hindenburg proportions. The Rangers blew him up for five runs and sent eight men to the plate. A Delino DeShields walk, followed by a line-drive homer to right by Jurickson Profar put the Rockies in a 2-0 hole. An RBI single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and a two-run homer by Joey Gallo turned that hole into 5-0 pit.
But from that point on, Bettis, his determination and focus razor sharp, shut down the Rangers. He blanked them for the next 4 ⅔ innings, allowing just two hits and striking out six. After giving up a one-out single to DeShields in the second, he retired 10 batters in a row. And how about this? He ended up with his fifth victory over the season, improving to 5-1, even as his ERA rose from 4.40 to 4.65.