Colorado Rockies morning after: 3 observations from Wednesday

On Wednesday night, the Colorado Rockies had their four-game winning streak snapped by the San Francisco Giants in a 4-3 loss at Coors Field.

The Colorado Rockies are now at 8-3 on the season and will be looking to capture their fourth consecutive series when they meet the Giants in the finale of the four-game series on Thursday afternoon in Denver.

However, before the Rockies take the field on Thursday afternoon, let’s take a look back on three things we saw on Wednesday night.

Problems throughout

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On Saturday night, the Rockies played what manager Bud Black called, “one of the best defensive games you guys will ever see.” Since then, however, the Rockies have stumbled in the field and, on Wednesday night, it cost them dearly.

Daniel Murphy and Trevor Story each committed errors, Raimel Tapia killed a potential rally with a poorly timed stolen base attempt, and San Francisco’s Mike Yastrzemski took advantage of a lackadaisical play in the Colorado outfield to stretch a single into a double. The Rockies were by no means crisp on Wednesday and the Giants took advantage.

The Rockies have committed four errors over the past three games. That’s a troubling sign as the Rockies are 5-0 in games where they don’t have a miscue and 3-3 in games where they do. Their offense carried them in Monday’s rally win when they had two errors. However, the bats weren’t enough to overcome a pair of errors on Wednesday night.

Not Gray’s day

Colorado starter Jon Gray hasn’t had much luck against San Francisco at Coors Field in his career, entering Wednesday with a 9.95 ERA in three previous starts covering 12.2 innings. On Wednesday, Gray faced the minimum through three innings, but Story’s error on a Yastrzemski grounder to open the fourth would eventually cost the Rockies as he scored on Brandon Belt‘s three-run homer that barely cleared the right field wall.

"“He (Belt) got enough of it. It wasn’t that great of a pitch and he put it out there. I just have to be better,” Gray said."

Gray surrendered three earned runs in six innings during his 92-pitch performance.

Long known for his fastball and slider, Gray admitted after the game that his velocity on his fastball wasn’t where he wanted to be on Wednesday night. With two strikeouts against San Francisco, Gray now has just seven in 16.1 innings pitched. That’s down considerably from his career average of just over a whiff per frame.

"“The command is there, but the velo (velocity) is still not up to where I want it to be, but I feel like I’m throwing it really well and moving it around and they’re not taking comfortable hacks on it at all,” Gray said. “I feel like the fastball has been pretty good. If I could see the velo creep up a little bit more, that would be great and that would help.”"

Tapia struggling

Starting in right field and making his first appearance in a game since July 31, Tapia went 0-for-2 and was cut down on a stolen base attempt after grounding into a fifth-inning fielder’s choice. He was lifted for pinch hitter Matt Kemp in the seventh inning, marking the second consecutive game where Tapia has been removed in favor of Kemp.

Tapia is now 2-for-15 on the season (.133) with seven strikeouts. With plenty of options in the outfield and a shortened season, the 26-year-old Tapia may find it tougher to break back into the lineup in the coming days if he can’t show he can make an impact.