SAN FRANCISCO — Even as a 15-year-old pitching among the mango trees in the Valencia suburbs of Venezuela, Antonio Senzatela snared the eyes of scouts with one blazing idea. His child’s fastball was an adult’s pitch, strong and true and pinpointed to whatever part of the plate that served him.
“He’s always had a specialness to him,” said Rockies director of pitching Mark Wiley. “He always had a command of his fastball, on both sides of the plate. That’s rare so early in your career.”
In three starts to his big-league run, including an overpowering 4-3 victory over the Giants at AT&T Park on Sunday, nearly eight of every 10 Senzatela pitches are fastballs. Now just 22 years old, he throws them with a veteran’s conviction.
BOX SCORE: Rockies 4, Giants 3
“You know the old adage? Dance with who brung ya,” said first-year Rockies manager Bud Black. “Every game is different. It’s a blank canvas. But, hey, he pitches with the fastball. He is as advertised.”
Even with Senzatela pitching just his third game above Double-A, the Rockies won a four-game series in San Francisco for the first time in their 25-year history. They beat Madison Bumgarner on Thursday, lost a game to Johnny Cueto on Saturday and got a complete-game dominating victory from Tyler Chatwood on Saturday afternoon.
“It is? Wow,” said second baseman DJ LeMahieu. “Games are always tough here. We have a lot of guys who like playing in environments like this. These are dogfights. But we really rise to the occasion.”
Senzatela’s seven innings Sunday netted the Giants seven baserunners and three hits. But he twice stranded runners at third base, in crucial finishes to the sixth and seventh innings. After a three-run first inning, he retired nine in a row through the fourth and had six consecutive scoreless frames.
The Rockies helped him with three runs to start the first inning, including a lead-off homer from Charlie Blackmon, and another shutdown performance from Colorado’s bullpen over the final two innings.
“That is the thing our minor-league people were crazy about: His ability to move the fastball, to pitch in to both left- and right-handed hitters, throw the ball down and away to both, to elevate when needed,” Black said of Senzatela.
“What he’s doing is pitching fundamentally sound,” Black said. “And he’s pitching his game. As pitchers move on, and they get multiple weapons, they’ll pitch to a hitter’s weakness. Right now, he’s primarily pitching to his strengths.”
The Rockies pounced on Giants right-hander Jeff Samardzija for three runs early, care of Blackmon’s home run, a single from LeMahieu and back-to-back doubles from Carlos Gonzalez and Nolan Arenado.
The Giants did the same to Senzatela, with a double from Denard Span to lead off, a Brandon Belt single, a triple from Brandon Crawford and sacrifice flies from Hunter Pence and Nick Hundley.
“I woke up and said, ‘OK, I need to make an adjustment and keep the game close for my team,’ ” Senzatela said.
The Rockies received an RBI single from LeMahieu in the second to score Tony Wolters that proved the difference. Senzatela made it stand from there. With Belt in scoring position in the sixth, LeMahieu made a diving, spinning stop of Pence’s grounder to punch him out, then Wolters dived for a Crawford dribbler and underhanded a throw to nab him at first. Senzatela jumped on his catcher from behind walking off the field.
“I was kind of scared,” Wolters said. “I thought he was tackling me.”
Mike Dunn struck out two at the top of the Giants’ order in the eighth and Adam Ottavino forced Pence into flying out. Greg Holland remained perfect in save situations (7-for-7) by putting the Giants down 1-2-3 in the ninth, including a diving catch by Gonzalez to end the game.
The Rockies improved to 9-5 — and back atop the National League West.
“This is a tough place to play, no doubt about it,” Black said. “I can sense our guys like coming here. This park has energy. We played hard and gritty all the way through.”
