Colorado Rockies Surrender 16 More Runs to Padres

Well guys, it’s going to be another one of those years to be a Colorado Rockies fan.

Jorge De La Rosa took the mound for his first home start of 2016 tonight after a not-great first outing on Monday. We know he loves Coors Field, but those hoping for better this time around were disappointed. The story is in the ball-strike ratio: Monday he threw 94 pitches, 61 for strikes; tonight it was 81 pitches, 47 for strikes. That’s really awful. DLR was laboring tonight: he never looked comfortable. For the first 2 2/3 innings, he hardly threw any strikes at all or even seemed to want to. His fastball velocity has dropped, which makes him far less confident in the pitch. He walked 5 before he found the strike zone with two outs in the 3rd. Alas, once he found it things got worse: Matt Kemp teed off with a solo home run, followed by a 3-run home run the next inning. In between, Cory Spangenberg hit a 3-run dinger of his own. Walt Weiss let DLR finish the 4th, but he left having given up 7 runs.

It’s no surprise that Weiss gave DLR as long as he did to try to figure things out. The bullpen is already exhausted and we’ve only played five games. The only starter to go at least 6 innings so far has been Tyler Chatwood on Wednesday. The Rockies might want to consider that whole “paired pitching” thing again because that’s essentially what we’re going to get anyway. Of course, if you’re going to stock your bullpen full of long relievers, they’d better be good, and Jason Gurka is not.

He started out great tonight, or at least he looked great compared to DLR. He threw strikes, he relied on his first class infield defense to make plays, and he only allowed one baserunner in the 5th. But then the 6th happened and Gurka allowed five hits and three more runs. He also ran into some good luck on two groundouts that were so very nearly hits, the first base umpire called them so both times. Replay was about the only thing on the Rockies’ side tonight, though, and both calls were overturned.

All this only made Miguel Castro‘s entrance in the 7th inning a breath of the freshest air. Castro, a secondary piece to Jeff Hoffman (who, by the way, had a stunning debut with Albuquerque tonight) in the Troy Tulowitzki trade, had a rocky start to his Coors Field career in late 2015. But tonight, he was brilliant, pitching two innings without putting a runner on and striking out four. At least there is somebody in the pen who can do work. It’s not Chad Qualls, who gave up three runs and recorded only one out. And it’s not Boone Logan, who also gave up three while only managing two outs.

If you’re counting, that’s 16 runs, which was San Diego’s total. After being completely shut out by Los Angeles in their first series of the season, they’ve now scored 29 runs in two games at Coors. I’ve heard that the Rockies cure struggling offenses, but I’m fairly certain they’ve never inspired a turn-around quite like this.

I’ve yet to mention the Colorado Rockies offense, mostly because they didn’t do anything worth mentioning. I was so excited to see Trevor Story for the first time tonight, and he thanked me for my attendance with a hat trick. He did slap an opposite-field single, a nice thing to see since San Diego was convinced he couldn’t beat the shift, but for the first time in five games he didn’t hit a home run. Of course, we all knew that streak would come to an end sooner or later. I just hoped it would be a little later.

Other than that, most of the lineup didn’t bother contributing. DJ LeMahieu had two hits, but he also grounded out to end the 4th inning with the bases loaded. Carlos Gonzalez and Nick Hundley were the only other hitters to reach base more than once, and Nolan Arenado continued his ice-cold start to the season, going for 0-for-3 with a strikeout.

I’m not even really sure I’d say the defense had a good game, though they were certainly the most functional piece. Arenado had a couple of his signature brilliant throws, and Story, LeMahieu, and Mark Reynolds turned a couple of nice double plays (including one where LeMahieu flipped the ball to Story from his glove). But Story and Reynolds each airmailed a throw in the 9th, making things tougher on Qualls and Logan than they already were, and LeMahieu had trouble with a grounder up the middle. Even DLR had a defensive oops, failing to cleanly field a comebacker by Alexei Ramirez in the 2nd that should have been a double play. It would have saved him 15 pitches.

Next: Rockies Lose Home Opener to Padres

You know what, let’s just forget tonight happened. If you love baseball, here’s a Bartolo Colon GIF. The man is a national treasure.