Colorado Rockies: Chad Bettis returns to the mound in dominant fashion
By Jason Burke
The Colorado Rockies are tied with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card race, but they, and the baseball world, received a big emotional boost on Monday night.
Chad Bettis has spent parts of the previous four seasons with the Colorado Rockies, primarily as a member of their starting rotation. His career 4.91 ERA may not have had many rooting for him in the past, but on Monday it felt like everyone that considers themselves a baseball fan was pulling for the 28-year-old righty.
Earlier this year it was announced that Bettis would be missing some time while he fought for his life in a battle with cancer. Throughout the season there have been updates indicating that he was progressing in his treatment and how he hoped to pitch again this season, but I always took those as wishful thinking. I mean, cancer is serious business after all.
But Bettis prevailed and was deemed clear and ready to return to the big leagues in what felt like a relatively short timeframe considering the seriousness of his ailment.
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Monday night he held the visiting Atlanta Braves scoreless over seven innings, while allowing six hits, no walks and striking out two.
That’s not to say that the night was easy by any means. The first batter of the game, Ender Inciarte, slapped the fifth pitch of his at-bat down the left field line where Gerardo Parra dove for, and missed, the ball. He recovered in time to hit the relay man who threw home as Inciarte attempted to lead off the game with an inside-the-park homer.
The hits were spread out across the remaining frames, and the next-biggest threat that the Braves posed while Bettis was on the mound was in the seventh when catcher Kurt Suzuki led off the frame with a double to left and was moved over to third when the next batter, Danny Santana, sacrificed himself to advance the runner.
Bettis worked out of this jam as well, getting both Ozzie Albies and Dansby Swanson to fly out to center to end the inning.
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There is just so much to like in this story. A cancer survivor returning to the mound, dominating, and exuding nothing but positivity while facing a deadly disease? That’s impossible not to root for, and we will continue to do so for the rest of Bettis’ career.