After a fun three game set with the Diamondbacks at home, the Rockies headed up north of the border to battle the Blue Jays in the newly renovated Rogers Centre. Ryan Feltner would take the hill after a great outing against perennial American League Cy Young candidate Kevin Gausman. Feltner turned in a good outing against some quality hitters in the Jays’ lineup, going five innings and two runs. For the Rockies offense, a season best, offensive explosion, knocked Gausman out of the game in the fourth inning. Every Rockies starter except Michael Toglia recorded a hit, in fact they all had a multi-hit game as well. Ryan McMahon turned in a four-hit masterpiece, Nolan Jones launched his first home run of the season, Brenton Doyle had a three-hit day, and Brendan Rodgers had his best game of the season. Peter Lambert delivered three clean innings out of the pen, and despite struggling, Tyler Kinley finished off the ninth for a great 12-4 Rockies win.
All the excitement came crashing back down in similar fashion to the last two series, as the offense went mute, mustering up only three runs over the final two games of the series. Despite settling down and giving the Rockies good length into the sixth inning, a five run first inning given up by Dakota Hudson was too much to overcome for the Rox bats, dropping game two 5-3. Two more hits from Nolan Jones, paired with Brenton Doyle’s third home run of the season were among the few bright spots in an anticlimactic game.
Game three was much of the same, as Jose Berrios delivered an ace performance for the Blue Jays, going seven shutout innings of two hit ball. The Rockies provided zero offensive resistance, save for a couple of Ezequiel Tovar and Elehuris Montero singles. Kyle Freeland looked better but still not great, giving up four runs in five innings of work. Despite the losses, the Rockies bullpen held true in the losses, giving up just one run across five innings of work. All told, another disappointing series for the Rockies dropping the last two after a commanding victory to begin the series.
Game one was great. Season highs in both hits with 20 and runs with 12, the Rockies had the offense flowing against one of the best pitchers in baseball. Nolan Jones finally seemed to break out of his early season funk, going 4-12 on the series including his first home run of the season, and really started to look comfortable at the plate again. Brenton Doyle continues to impress. Within another home run and a good series, Doyle is looking like a player who can seriously contribute to the Rockies beyond his all-world glove. Ezequiel Tovar continues to look like an above average big leaguer that Rockies fans can get excited over the star potential he possesses.
Peter Lambert had an incredible outing, going three scoreless in relief of Ryan Feltner in the win. Lambert has been one of the Rockies best bullpen arms while showcasing the ability to be a multi-inning swingman. Lambert’s performance brought his season ERA down to a 1.80 in 10 innings, a much-improved rate compared to his 6.22 career mark. Lambert’s new juice in the bullpen could be the key to him carving out an important role with a big-league club moving forward. Speaking of Feltner, he has looked like the Rockies best starter thus far, and despite not having his dominant stuff he still turned in an incredibly solid outing resulting in his first win of the season. Victor Vodnik had two more scoreless innings, bringing his season total to 10.2 innings without giving up a run.
The Negatives
Can I say game one as the positives and games two and three as the negative? Because for the third straight series, the Rockies followed up a great, well-rounded, offensive outburst to start a series with two brutal losses. Dakota Hudson’s great start to the season cooled down a bit with his five run first in Saturday’s loss, although still providing a six-inning outing is a silver lining that is nice to see from a pitcher during his bad starts. Charlie Blackmon struggled in his return from a stomach illness, going 0-7 with two strikeouts in the back two games of the series, quite uncharacteristic of a typical Charlie. The Rockies NEED to stop giving up first inning runs. It’s hard to play from behind, and by giving up runs in the first inning of all three games, the Rockies were forced to all series. It’s hard to win that way.
Colorado Rockies v Toronto Blue Jays / Vaughn Ridley/GettyImages
Coors Crown: Elehuris Montero
These three games were so up and down it made it hard to choose the best and worst. I’ve been on the Elehuris Montero train all year and I’m going to stand by it. His approach is much improved from last season, and he hits the ball so hard. Montero was the only Rocky to hit in all three games of the series, going 4-11 in total for a .364 average. Montero raised his season average to .225, a better reflection of his quality of contact. He scorched baseballs against the Blue Jays, with three of his four hits tallying an exit velocity over 106 mph. I love the improvements and adjustments Montero has made to his offensive game this year, and I would advise Rockies fans to hop on the bandwagon because he continues to show signs of developing into a really exciting player.
Rockiest Rocky: Tyler Kinley
The guys who were supposed to be the “medium leverage” bullpen arms have been pretty good thus far. Peter Lambert, Nick Mears, Victor Vodnik, and Jalen Beeks have been solid overall. The guys who were supposed to be the high leverage, eighth and ninth innings guys entrusted in finishing the tight games? Not so much. Jake Bird, Tyler Kinley, and Justin Lawrence have all been shaky to start their respective seasons and, in some outings, just straight bad. Kinley was called upon to pitch the ninth in Friday’s win and gave up two more runs in one inning of work. Kinley allowed a wild pitch as well as a home run to known contact hitter Isiah Kiner-Falefa. While it didn’t cost Colorado the game and they still walked away with the win, Bud Black expected much more out of Tyler Kinley than the 12.00 ERA and 3.00 WHIP he currently holds.
Ryan Feltner: 5 IP, 2 ER, 1 W (series); 3.38 ERA, 1-1 W/L, 18 K (season totals)
Peter Lambert: 3 IP, 0 ER, 3 K; 1.80 ERA, 10 IP, 8 K
Dakota Hudson: 6 IP, 5 ER, 5 K; 4.15 ERA, 17.1 IP, 11 K
Kyle Freeland: 5 IP, 4 ER, 3 K; 13.21 ERA, 15.2 IP, 9 K
Victor Vodnik: 2 IP, 0 ER; 0.00 ERA, 10.2 IP, 9 K
Call to Action
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