Rockies leave Reds in a ‘purple haze,’ 12-2

By HAL McCOY

Blue doesn’t seem to faze the Cincinnati Reds, but to them The Color Purple was an awful movie and an awful sight on the opposing team.

The Reds more than hold their own against two good teams that wear blue, the Chicago Cubs and the Milwaukee Brewers.

The purple-clad Colorado Rockies are a different story.

The Rockies not only beat the Reds Friday night in Great American Ball Park, they ran over them, backed up, and ran over them again, 12-2.

At the time, the Rockies were on a 2-and-5 road trip and they had lost 22 of their last 28 road games.

But their victory Friday night was their sixth in the last eight games over the Reds in GABP.

And they did it against the Reds could offer, starting pitcher Luis Castillo. He gave up a three-run home run to Daniel Murphy in the first inning and it only got worse.

Murphy made it six RBI for the night when he ripped a three-double in the ninth when the Rockies scored six runs off Jared Hughes.

Castillo also gave up a two-run home run to David Dahl. He barely survived five innings and gave up six runs, eight hits and two walks, lifting his earned run average from 2.36 to 2.71. It was the first time he gave up more than four earned runs this season and the eight hits tied his season’s high.

After falling behind, 3-0, in the first, the Reds got back in it with a run in the bottom of the first and a solo home run by Josh VanMeter leading off the second. That cut Colorado’s lead to 3-2.

The Rockies, though, broke it open in the fourth with three two-out runs. Charlie Blackmon doubled home a run and Dahl connected for his home run to make it 6-2.

Blackmon’s name was linked this week to a possible trade involving the Reds and showed why. He had three hits, drove in two and scored two.

The Reds made one futile effort to get back in the game in the seventh when Yasiel Puig doubled and VanMeter singled, putting runners on third and first.

Alas, the Reds didn’t score. Scooter Gennett struck out and Jose Iglesias hit into a double play.

VanMeter finished the night with three hits, a home run and two singles. Catcher Tucker Barnhart was rushed off the injured list after only one rehab game and collected two hits.

Robert Stephenson replaced Castillo in the sixth inning and pitched three scoreless, hitless innings, walking two and striking out three.

Then came the ninth and the Rockies lit into Jared Hughes as if they were playing at home in Coors Field, where they average more than six runs a game. They average barely over four on the road.

The first three Rockies singled and with one out Hughes issued a walk to fill the bases. That’s when Murphy pulled the first pitch he saw for his three-run double. Two more hits plated two more runs.

And it left the Reds in a purple haze.