Rockies vs. Blue Jays: Rox drop yet another series

The Rundown

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. 

The Positives

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.