Situation Normal: Rockies’ Winning Streak Halts at Two

Rockies 4, Padres 8

You knew it was too much to ask that the Rockies win three games in a row. Not these Rockies. Not with this manager, these coaches, this pitching staff, this disastrous season. I’m still shocked we took two in a row.

Despite my lack of shock, I would like to point out that Christian Friedrich had a fine outing tonight. He was able to go 5 full innings within the specified pitch limits, and in those innings he only allowed one run, a solo homer by Yasmani Grandal. He also struck out 5 and didn’t walk anyone. Even when he made a bad throw in the 1st that turned into a two-base error, he recovered and didn’t allow the runner to score from 3rd. He also did not lose his cool after throwing a wild pitch in the 2nd. Signs of maturity from the young lefty.

After a couple of good long-relief outings, the artist formerly known as Jeremy Guthrie returned to the mound to record both the blown save and the loss. He’s used to losses, but the blown save’s gotta hurt. He gave Grandal his second homer of the game, and of the season for that matter, and this time Carlos Quentin was on base. Then he gave up a lead-off homer to Alexi Amarista in the 7th. It was Amarista’s second homer of the season as well. Both long balls went out on breaking balls that didn’t break. Same old story with Guthrie. I will take just about anything we can get in a trade for him. Jonny Gomes. James Loney. Heck, Felipe Paulino. Don’t say you wouldn’t do it too.

Even though Guthrie gets slapped with the loss, it was Adam Ottavino who had the toughest night of them all. He pitched just the 8th inning and allowed 4 runs during it, including a 2-run shot to Amarista, his third homer of the season. Why are guys named Yasmani Grandal and Alexi Amarista having multi-homer games against the Rockies? Have you even heard of these guys before? It’s not like it’s Prince Fielder or Giancarlo Stanton we’re talking about here. Heaven help us.

Then Guillermo Moscoso pitched a scoreless 9th with 2 K’s but really, could you get excited about that knowing we had a half-inning to overcome a 4-run deficit? Even with Huston Street on the mound you know you’re probably going home sad. And good ole Huston struck out his former teammates Jonathan Herrera and Dexter Fowler before getting a game-ending groundout from Marco Scutaro.

The Rockies were not totally at a loss for offense, but given the fact that starter Edinson Volquez walked 6 guys in 6 innings and the Padres committed 2 errors that led to 3 unearned runs, they really should have scored a lot more. I’m glad they can capitalize on bad defense, but might this have been a scoreless game without that? Perhaps. Only Wilin Rosario‘s solo homer didn’t benefit from crummy work in the field. In the 5th inning, following that homer, Eric Young walked and Fowler bunted him over. It was a good bunt, and Fowler got a solid single out of it while EY scored. Then Grandal made a bad throw and Fowler advanced to 2nd, but he got a little greedy and tried for 3rd. MAKING OUTS ON THE BASEPATHS = I HATE IT ALMOST AS MUCH AS WALKING IN A RUN. The next batter, Scutaro, was hit by a pitch, so instead of having a runner on 1st and 1 out there would have been runners on the corners and no outs. Which would have made Carlos Gonzalez‘s GIDP at least an RBI GIDP. Nobody did their job in that inning, except maybe EY.

We can do better than this, especially against the Padres. If we don’t take this series, I’ll … do something to express my deep sadness and disappointment in this team.

The rubber match takes place tomorrow afternoon, and Drew Pomeranz is rumored to be the Rockies’ starter.