Colorado Rockies: 3 Big Moments from Wednesday’s Loss

So what part of Wednesday’s 6-5 loss by the Colorado Rockies at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds was the most frustrating? It’s hard to know.

To us, there were three portions of the contest that really stood out as frustrating moments in a game that dropped the Rockies to 3-3 on the six-game road trip and lowered their overall record to 8-7.

Luckily, the Rockies have an off day to recoup on Thursday before starting a weekend series with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night at Coors Field.

Frustration 1: He didn’t touch the base?

It’s a simple rule of baseball … you have to touch every base in order to score. Dustin Garneau fell victim to that simple rule on Wednesday afternoon at a very inopportune time.

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In the seventh inning with Garneau standing on second, pinch hitter Ryan Raburn slapped a single to right field. Garneau appeared to stumble on third base but still scored to knot the game at 3-3. However, the Reds appealed that Garneau didn’t touch third as he rounded the bag to score. After a review, umpires determined that Garneau didn’t touch the base and was ruled out, giving the Reds back the lead at 3-2.

After the game, Garneau told The Denver Post he was stunned with the ruling.

“I hit the base, I tripped over it,” he said. “I don’t know (the Reds) saw, or what they saw from wherever they were reviewing the play, but I hit the base.”

The call would prove very important as the Rockies dropped a one-run decision.

“Double-shocked is an understatement, I guess,” Garneau said. “I mean we lost by one run.”

Frustration 2: Christian Bergman pitching the ninth inning

With the game tied 5-5 in the ninth inning, Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss turned to long reliever/spot starter Christian Bergman to take over the game. Bergman would give up two consecutive singles to open the inning before Cincinnati’s Tucker Barnhart laced a one-out single to right to score the game-winning run.

Bergman coming to the mound was a bit of a head-scratcher, especially with an off day tomorrow and setup man Miguel Castro and closer Jake McGee not having pitched the night before. Weiss revealed after the game that Castro was battling inflammation in his right shoulder so perhaps the hard-throwing right-hander wouldn’t have been able to pitch.

But what’s the logic for not using McGee? That’s a tough one to pin down other than thinking maybe McGee would’ve only been good for one inning and then Bergman or another reliever would’ve pitched the 10^th. Weiss had already used Boone Logan, Chad Qualls, and Justin Miller, so the options were limited, but McGee seems like a solid choice to pitch the ninth in a tie game … in my humble opinion.

Frustration 3: One bad inning

Much like the night before, Colorado’s starting pitcher had one bad inning and it ended up costing the Rockies greatly.

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Falling in the same trap as Jorge De La Rosa on Tuesday night, Chad Bettis had a sour second inning, giving up three runs as the Reds took a quick 3-0 lead. Outside of that second inning, Bettis was perfect against Cincinnati in his six innings of work, allowing just three hits (all in the second inning) while striking out five.