Colorado Rockies Lose Again Late to Texas Rangers

Coming off two of the most painful losses of the season, the Colorado Rockies travelled to Texas to continue the home-and-away four-game series with the Texas Rangers.

It was a hot night in Arlington with Jorge De La Rosa facing off against Martin Perez. The Rockies continued to battle and again had the opportunity to win, but the Rangers were able to once again storm back in the late innings to beat the Rockies, 5-4.

Here’s what happened:

A Lot of Traffic for the Rangers

It is typical for De La Rosa to allow quite a few baserunners and tonight was no different. After escaping the first after loading the bases, DLR gave up a run on three singles culminating with Ian Desmond‘s base knock.

The Rangers got something going again in the fourth as two singles, a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly gave them their second run of the game. In the fifth inning, De La Rosa only allowed one hit, but it was a solo home run to Jonathan Lucroy, who was making his home debut in front of the Texas fans.

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De La Rosa was lifted in favor of Gonzalez Germen to start the sixth inning having already thrown 101 pitches. His final line was impressive again considering the volume of Rangers on base, allowing three runs, seven hits and three walks over five innings while striking out only one.

Late-Inning Offense

After being burned by the Rangers scoring in the late innings at Coors Field, the Rockies gave them a taste of their own medicine tonight.

Early in the game, all of the offense came from Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu. Charlie led off the game with a single and was able to advance on a throwing error by Perez. LeMahieu then drove his friend home with a single to right field.

Blackmon was the only guy to get a hit between the first and eighth inning when Mark Reynolds followed Nolan Arenado’s walk with a single to left field. David Dahl came to the plate with runners on first and second, a huge at-bat for the rookie. He came through in a big way for the Rockies, lining a triple down the right field line, scoring two and tying the game.

Ryan Raburn followed with a clutch sacrifice fly to deep left field, giving the Rockies a 4-3 lead.

David Dahl

Coming in with a 15-game hitting streak, Dahl started the game with two groundouts. In his third at-bat, he was able to get on beating a ground ball to short to first, but it was ruled an error with Elvis Andrus bobbling the ball for a second.

His next at-bat was in the eighth inning and he roped a line drive down the first base line. It gave him hits in his first 16 MLB games, tying Juan Pierre for the Rockies record. If he is able to get a hit tomorrow, he will tie the MLB record at 17 games.

Bullpen Continues to Implode

Carlos Estevez is no longer the Rockies closer after being replaced with Adam Ottavino. Estevez got his first action tonight as Walt Weiss called on him to get the Rockies through the seventh inning trailing in a 3-1 game. While he was still a bit wild, it was a successful outing. He pitched a scoreless inning facing a strong part of the Rangers lineup. Carlos got Adrian Beltre to pop out, before Odor slammed a double into center. After the double, he got Lucroy and Jurickson Profar to pop out harmlessly to end the inning. Hopefully Estevez will be able to build upon this positive outing and provide the Rockies a reliable option down the road.