Colorado Rockies morning after: Well, that game was…interesting

The Colorado Rockies bats finally woke up…but not enough for a win.

The Colorado Rockies lost their third straight game and their second straight to the Milwaukee Brewers late Friday night as they lost to the Brewers by a score of 11-10 in 10 innings.

Even though the Rockies had plenty of offense (as shown by the 10 runs), the Rockies still had plenty of issues.

In reality, the offense wasn’t good

By just looking at the score, the Rockies offense did well. 10 runs and had 16 hits. Pretty good, right? Wrong. Most of that came in the first four innings. The Rockies led by a score of 9-3 after four innings and 9-4 after five.

After the fourth inning, the Rockies were able to muster one run (on a Carlos Gonzalez home run in the 6th) and only four hits (plus one walk) in the following six innings. The only inning with multiple hits was the sixth, in which Carlos Gonzalez had his homer and Gerardo Parra had a two-out single. He, however, was stranded when the next batter, Ian Desmond, struck out.

For comparison between the innings, let’s look at their stats.

1st through 4th inning: 12-for-23 (.522 batting average), including eight singles, a double, two triples, a sac fly, a home run, two walks, and 8 RBI

5th inning on: 4-for-21 (.190 batting average), including two singles, a double, a homer run, two walks, and one RBI

Overall, 16-for-41 isn’t bad (.364 batting average) but considering the stark contrast, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Plus, the Rockies stranded 19 runners. The Brewers stranded 21 runners but it didn’t matter, because they won the game. Of the top eight hitters in the batting order, Charlie Blackmon was the only batter who did not strand a runner. The other seven stranded at least two runners.

There is a silver lining to it, though, as they did cut out on their strikeouts a bit, as they only struck out seven times (and two came in the 10th inning). They are averaging about 10 per nine innings.

Additionally, each of the nine Rockies in the starting lineup got at least one hit (including Chad Bettis). Charlie Blackmon went 3-for-6 with a double, a triple, two runs scored, and an RBI. Gerardo Parra went 4-for-5 with a run, a RBI, and a stolen base. Trevor Story went 1-for-4 with a three run triple, a sac fly, a walk, and he also had a decent amount of good plays defensively.

Another start falls flat

The Rockies had nine straight quality starts entering Wednesday, which set a new franchise record.

However, Tyler Anderson had a bad start on Wednesday to break the string. On Friday, German Marquez was rocked and Saturday, the Rockies got their third consecutive non-quality start, as Chad Bettis only went five innings, allowing ten hits, seven runs (all earned), and walked three.

In the three games, the Rockies starters ERA was 9.82. Obviously, that’s not setting your team up to win, especially when the offense is as bad as the Rockies offense has been (entering Friday, they averaged slightly less than 3.9 runs per game and averaged 2.2 runs in the Rockies previous five games.

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The bullpen fell flat too

Entering the series, the Rockies bullpen ERA was north of 5, which is a far cry from what the Rockies had hoped. They were excellent in 4 1/3 innings of work on Thursday as they only allowed two walks but they weren’t good on Friday. In five innings of work, they allowed seven hits, four runs (all earned), and walked two batters.

Chris Rusin didn’t look particularly good in his inning of work as he allowed a hit, a run (that was earned), and also walked a batter. But honestly, he hasn’t looked good at all this season. He has made 11 appearances and has allowed at least a run in seven of them. His season ERA is nearly at 6 now as it is at 5.94. He has also walked at least one batter in eight of his 11 appearances.

Wade Davis had an off night as well. He got the first two outs in the ninth with relative ease as he only needed seven pitches. However, he gave up a single to Hernan Perez and a homer to Manny Pina to tie the game up at 10 a piece. Both the cutter that Perez got his single on and the fastball that Pina for his homer on weren’t in terrible locations (down the middle but right at the knees and middle away on the fastball) but Perez and Pina were able to connect.

Jake McGee gave up three hits and the final run in the Rockies coffin in the tenth inning. The eventual game winning single by Travis Shaw was also not badly located as it was a slider off the plate away at the knees but Shaw was able to serve it to center field.

The Rockies will send Kyle Freeland to the mound against Chase Anderson as the Rockies hope to get back on track at 6:10 PM at Coors Field. Also, in the game, on Rockies television, Jenny Cavnar will be filling in again for regular play-by-play broadcaster Drew Goodman on AT&T Sports Net Rocky Mountain, so that is something to look forward to on your Saturday evening.