Colorado Rockies Swept By Milwaukee Brewers: 3 Takes

The Colorado Rockies finished the first half of a two city, six game road trip Wednesday in ugly fashion, as they fell 7-1 to the Milwaukee Brewers. The loss, the Rockies third in three days in Milwaukee, drops them to 60-67 on the year. Here are three takes from Wednesday’s matinee.

1) Bumbling Bullpen

Just like the first two games of the series, the Colorado Rockies bullpen did little to help the cause Wednesday afternoon. Chris Rusin and Chad Qualls pitched the 6th and 7th innings, and combined to allow five runs on seven hits and two walks.

Carlos Estevez and Adam Ottavino gave Rockies fans a small silver lining with a clean 8th inning. Ottavino has been outstanding since his return from the DL, and while Estevez’s struggles have been well-documented, he’s got the talent to be a long-term fixture in the Rockies relief plans.

The problem for Colorado hasn’t been tons of blown saves, but rather finding a way to get from the starter to their back-end arms like Ottavino. Qualls, Jake McGee and Jason Motte have all been disappointing this season. The bullpen problems were particularly frustrating today and in this series because the starters actually threw the ball quite well (more on that later).

The good news for the Rockies is that they have a few quality pieces to build around in the back end of the bullpen (namely Ottavino), and no bad contracts tying them to ineffective pitchers past this season. The bad news is that there are lot of other questions that will need to be answered about Colorado’s relief corps if they’re going to seriously contend in 2017.

2) Clutch? Not so much

Colorado actually outhit Milwaukee over the course of the series, 24-22, but they were outscored 17-7. The difference? The Rockies just could not get a hit when they really needed one all series long.

Colorado was 0-8 with runners in scoring position Wednesday and an abysmal 2-23 for the series. The only run the Rockies scored came way back in the first inning on a solo home run from Nolan Arenado. Even when the Brewers gave the Rockies an opportunity on a two-base error from Ryan Braun, Colorado was unable to move the runner even to third, let alone around to score.

It would be crazy to not expect some kind of drop off offensively given the injuries Colorado has been dealing with. Trevor Story and Mark Reynolds are both done for the year, Charlie Blackmon just missed a few days, and now D.J. LeMahieu is hurting as well. A lineup with Gerardo Parra batting 5th and playing first base isn’t exactly a dream team.

If the Rockies are going to win games with this lineup, it’s probably going to have to come on the strength of their starting pitching. That might have sounded crazy not too long ago, but recently it’s become more realistic, which leads to our last topic…

3) Special Ks

In the midst of an otherwise extremely forgettable series, Colorado did something in the last two days that they’ve never done before. Jon Gray and Wednesday’s starter Tyler Anderson became the first Colorado duo to have double digit strikeouts in consecutive games.

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Surely if asked, both players would say they’d rather have the win that eluded both of them than the strikeouts, but that kind of swing-and-miss stuff is a precious commodity. It’s common sense; the fewer balls the other team puts in to play, the fewer chances they have to get hits and runs.

Anderson wasn’t generating a lot of strikeouts when he first came up to the big leagues, but he set a new career high for Ks in a game today after tying his career high last time out. The Brewers strike out a ton, so it’s important to take these results with a grain of salt.

Next: Dahl Continues Showing Versatility for the Rockies

But the young duo of Gray and Anderson is one of the most exciting in franchise history, and they only look they’re getting better.