Colorado Rockies: 3 keys for the D’Backs series

A case study in poor situational offense for the Rockies

On Sunday, in Colorado’s 11-3 loss to the Dodgers, the Rockies were only down 1-0 in the second inning. Dodgers starter Ross Stripling did not have his best control throughout the entire outing and had already shown that he didn’t have his command in the first inning and the first two batters of the second inning.

In the first, Stripling threw 10 of his 18 pitches outside of the zone (aka not a single thread of the baseball was in the zone). The Rockies chased a few of them, but they still had three two- or three-ball counts in the first inning, when they had four batters come to the plate.

To lead off the second inning, Daniel Murphy walks on six pitches, further proving that Stripling’s control is not great at the moment.

Ryan McMahon comes up and, after falling behind 0-2 (both pitches were in the zone and called strikes) got on with a single. The Rockies got a break, though, when left fielder Chris Taylor misplayed the ball. Murphy goes to third and McMahon to second on the error, so there are runners on second and third with nobody out.

Brendan Rodgers comes to the plate and Stripling can’t get a hold on his curveball as it keeps ending above the strike zone. Rodgers gets a 2-0 count after two high curveballs and he swings and grounds one to third.