Colorado Rockies morning after: 4 moments that mattered vs. Dodgers

It seemed to be over for the Colorado Rockies before the sun faded from the sky at Coors Field on Friday night.

When Justin Turner’s opposite-field two-run double pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-0 lead in the top of the fourth and sent Colorado starter Antonio Senzatela to the showers, there was a sense that the Dodgers were going to take their sweet revenge on the Rockies after an Opening Day loss on Thursday that saw the defending World Champions commit plenty of mistakes.

Just over 24 hours later, however, it was the Rockies who were making the mistakes and the Dodgers were ready to capitalize, and did with an 11-6 victory. But it wasn’t without some uneasy moments for the blue-clad fans in attendance as a seventh-inning Rockies flurry sent Dodgers fans into their best Coors Field takes.

Here are four moments that mattered in the Colorado Rockies loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday night.

Senzatela can’t finish it off

Already down 2-0 heading into the second inning, Senzatela opened the frame with a Gavin Lux groundout. That was Senzatela’s first ground ball action of the night, a notable moment since Senzatela’s 50.5 ground ball percentage is third in the National League (minimum 400 innings pitched) since he made his debut in April of 2017. Senzatela then struck out Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer for the second out of the inning.

Two outs, no one on … and the Dodgers would proceed to hit three consecutive doubles to plate another pair of runs and expand the lead to 4-0.

In all, with two outs in each of the first two innings, Senzatela gave up four combined runs on five combined hits.

The Rockies say enough

The airwaves were buzzing with the thought of a Trevor Bauer no-hitter as the seventh inning began. The reigning Cy Young winner and newest prize in the Dodgers rotation went through the first six innings without giving up a hit while throwing just 73 pitches.

It was all going extremely well for Bauer … until the seventh.

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Trevor Story started the inning with a sharp single to left, breaking up the no-hit bid. Two pitches later, Charlie Blackmon hit the first home run of the season at Coors Field with a 393-foot drive and the shutout was done.

In that same inning, Ryan McMahon, Dom Nunez, and Sam Hilliard would add homers, Bauer would walk off the field with a 5.68 ERA, and the Rockies would send 11 men to the plate after not having more than four hitters in an inning all night. How can you not be romantic about baseball, right?

By the way, that was just the fourth time in franchise history that the Rockies have hit four homers in an inning, and it’s the first time it’s happened since 1999.

Now that’s a look

OK, it may not have been the most pivotal moment of the game, but exactly what was going on between Bauer and Raimel Tapia after this third-inning strikeout?

One thing you can count on between division rivals? It’s always going to be a little chippy, even in the second game of the season. And with Bauer’s strut and animations, it ramps it up perhaps just that much more.

Cat delay

So you think Coors Field was weird on Friday night during that seventh-inning offensive explosion, huh? May I offer you a eighth-inning stoppage of play thanks to a cat on the field?

The adventure with the cat in center field has added yet another chapter in what has already been an interesting trip to Denver for Cody Bellinger.