Guthrie Continues to Falter in Rockies Loss to A’s

Rockies 5, A’s 8

Well, here’s a fun little stat for you: the Rockies are 0-7 against the American League and they’re the only team in baseball that hasn’t managed to win an interleague game yet this season. Considering the fact that two of their three opponents have not been challenging ones and that all these games have taken place at home, that’s just depressing.

Also, Jeremy Guthrie has got to go. Whatever adjustments he needs to be making to his pitches, he’s not making them, and it’s become a pretty serious liability. The A’s scored 6 runs in a single inning last night. Guthrie allowed 3 home runs, including 2 from Brandon Moss, a guy who previously had 18 career home runs in 5 seasons and whose batting average jumped from .154 to .235 thanks to last night’s game. Guthrie just cannot get the out when he needs it. Oh, he does sometimes, but you get the sense it was more luck than execution of a game plan. The first of Moss’s home runs was hit on a 78-mph curveball that did not curve one iota. I understand that sometimes mistakes happen, but they happen on every other batter with Guthrie. The really sad thing is that his performance this season has likely sapped him of all trade value, so I’m not sure anyone would take him off our hands even if we begged.

Perhaps the worst part is that Guthrie was staked a 4-run lead going into the 2nd inning. He didn’t pitch great in the 1st, but he got out of a bases-loaded jam, and he certainly pitched better than the A’s Bartolo Colon. Colon threw 41 pitches in the 1st inning alone and gave up a solo shot to Tyler Colvin and three RBI singles. Even though I ought to know better than to make assumptions like this by now, I thought maybe I could just sit back and relax because this game would be easily won. But of course, Guthrie was on the mound, so no lead was ever safe.

Credit will be given to the following individuals for their efforts toward the cause: Colvin, who not only homered in the Rockies’ first AB of the game but walked twice like a good lead-off hitter. He also laid down an excellent sacrifice bunt in the 6th that moved two runners into scoring position with no outs. Lots of people griped about that bunt, and I get where they’re coming from because Colvin is a hot hitter right now, but he could not have more perfectly completed the task he was given. And then there was the highlight reel catch he made in the 8th to rob Cliff Pennington of what would have been his second homer of the game. Colvin used all that height to leap and reach over the wall and it was a beauty. Marco Scutaro tripled and scored in the 1st, though he also made one of the outs that wasted Colvin’s bunt. Todd Helton hit his 6th home run of the season and was the only Rockie to score more than one run. And Jordan Pacheco and Wil Nieve both had a pair of hits, though neither was ever able to score. Also, terrific relief appearances by Matt Reynolds, Adam Ottavino, and Josh Roenicke, who are probably wondering what in the heck is wrong with our starters when they have no trouble getting the outs they need.

And we frown heartily on things like Scutaro’s groundout and Carlos Gonzalez‘s strikeout which resulted in 2 runners stranded in scoring position. In a game with a small deficit like 3 runs, those missed opportunities cannot happen. Especially Cargo’s strikeout, which he repeated in the 9th inning with 2 on and nobody out. It alarms me more than it otherwise would if I hadn’t seen this before. Every so often he gets a little bit too into himself and he starts trying to be the hero every time he comes to the plate, chasing terrible pitches and showing zero patience. He should have been the hero last night, and would have been if he’d taken some good AB’s with all those runners on. Instead, he was 1-for-5 with 3 K’s and no RBI or runs scored.

Oh Rockies, please, please do not get swept by the A’s. Please.

The series continues at Coors Field tonight with Josh Outman on the mound for the Rockies.