Colorado Rockies Finally Lose a Game: Mets Win 6-4

The Colorado Rockies entered Sunday’s game at .500 but as Charlie Blackmon said last night, “Congratulations, we’re average. We want better.” Unfortunately, Noah Syndergaard was the pitcher standing in the way of that goal on Sunday.

Chad Bettis took the mound for the Rockies looking to sweep the New York Mets for a seven-game season series. Bettis and Syndergaard both provided their teams with strong starts both leaving after six innings with the game tied at three. Unfortunately, the Mets won the battle of the bullpens, winning the game 6-4.

Here are four things to know about today’s game…

Bettis and the Quality Start Train

It looked early in the game as though the Rockies streak of six straight quality starts would be broken as the Mets scored in each of the first three innings. Bettis bounced back in a big way and did not allow a run or hit for the next three innings. The quality start means the rotation provided the team with one in each of the seven games on this road trip. Bettis was dominate through the final three innings and ended with a very nice line:

6.0 IP 5 H 3 ER 2 BB 8 K

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The 8 Ks ties Chad’s season high, but he did not factor into the decision as the bullpen blew the lead after he had exited.

Bullpen Struggles

The 11-inning shutout streak for the bullpen came to and end in a big way in the seventh. Boone Logan was tasked with the inning but clearly didn’t have his best stuff. He struggled with command walking Alejandro De Aza and James Loney. With two outs Neil Walker, a switch hitter, came to the plate. Walt Weiss had the choice to remove Logan in favor of Adam Ottavino but decided to stick with Logan, who had already thrown 22 pitches. The decision backfired as Logan left a fastball up and in the middle of the plate and Walker didn’t miss it, hammering a home run to left center field. It gave the Mets the 6-4 lead and proved to be the winning runs.

I understand Walt’s decision there but, especially in hindsight, it would have been good to lift the unusually ineffective and wild Logan.

Tony Wolters

The rookie got the start behind home plate and he did not disappoint. It is truly astounding how many strikes he “steals” for his pitching staff. Today was no different as he was able to help Bettis and the bullpen with his skills behind the dish.

Wolters also got it done at the plate today as Syndergaard intentionally walked him twice to face Bettis and he also got a seventh-inning rally going with a perfect bunt single. He came all the way around to score what was the go-ahead run at the time.

Wolters is proving to be an extremely valuable part of the team, mostly on defense, but lately he has been contributing on the offensive side as well.

The offense

Led by Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu’s pesky at bats, the Colorado Rockies offense had a solid day considering they were facing “Thor.” They were seeing the ball pretty well, forcing Noah to throw 118 pitches over six innings of work. The Rockies scored three runs off of him and added another with a Carlos Gonzalez sacrifice fly in the seventh inning.

CarGo had a strong day also notching a RBI double. The Rockies’ third baseman also provided two hits and two RBI. Surprisingly, this was not compliments of Nolan Arenado, as Daniel Descalso started at third base. Nolan got a “planned day off” as he has seemed to be struggling and maybe overthinking things the past couple of games.

Descalso has been a pleasant surprise for the Rockies this year hitting .310 with 20 RBI.

Next: Sizing Up Colorado's Wild Card Competition

The Rockies will return home one game under .500 at 52-53. It is unfortunate to lose this game but it is hard to be unhappy with a 5-2 road trip to the East Coast, especially playing two of the better teams in baseball.

After an off day tomorrow, the Rockies will be at Coors Field for what is the biggest homestand they have had in six years, welcoming the Dodgers, Marlins and Rangers to Denver over the next week and a half. The Dodgers and Marlins are two of the teams ahead of the Rockies in the Wild Card hunt so winning as many as possible will be huge.