Rockies vs. Giants: Rox salvage series in Coors

The Positives

The offense showed signs of life in the last two games of the series, scoring 15 runs on 26 hits in the last two games. The bullpen was immaculate, allowing just one earned run across 14.1 innings. Charlie Blackmon has had some struggles offensively as of late, but he turned in a great series going 5-9 in his two games. Elias Diaz stayed hot with four hits and a home run, while Brenton Doyle tallied his fourth homer of the year. Sean Bouchard had a nice series and is looking like he may have the makings of an everyday bat with four hits. After a recent tough stretch at the plate, Ezequiel Tovar righted the ship with a five-hit performance, including a 3-5 day on Thursday. Tovar currently sits with a .269 batting average and a .714 OPS. Among the good bullpen performances include Victor Vodnik’s 1.2 innings, Jake Bird’s 1.1 innings, and Justin Lawrence’s clean inning. Nick Mears had three strikeouts in his outing, a positive sign considering his recent struggles. Jalen Beeks' great season continues, as scoreless appearance dropped his ERA to 2.60. Anthony Molina continues to become one of my favorite stories for the Rockies this season. After another strong 3.2 innings of relief, Molina has recovered well from his atrocious start to the year. The rule-5 snag has to remain on the active roster if the Rockies want to keep him around, and it looks like the team is willing to put up with some growing pains in exchange for the upside. Let’s hope he can continue his improvement, because if he can turn into a quality reliever it will be one of the better feel-good stories of the season. 

The Negatives

Big innings came back to bite the starters in the Rockies losses, as a four-run inning would chase Dakota Hudson and a seven-run inning put a dent in Peter Lambert’s outing. Although the offense managed to heat up, the game one shutout with just four hits at the hands of Kyle Harrison is a tough way to start a series. Ryan McMahon had his sixth error of the season, which is tied for fourth in the league. A typically elite defender has seen a massive defensive drop off in this season according to the advanced metrics, which hopefully is just a fluke, and he will quickly regain his defensive prowess. Outside of the starting pitching and the game one offense, there isn’t actually too much to complain about as the bullpen was great and all of the Rockies hitters outside of Jacob Stallings and Hunter Goodman managed two or more hits in the series (Stallings only had two at bats and Goodman only had four). 

Coors Crown: Cal Quantrill

The Coors Crown is starting to become the Cal Crown as his starts have accounted for a third of the Rockies wins this season. For the second start in a row he has played the role of stopper, ending a losing streak and today keeping the Rockies away from another sweep. Quantrill recorded his second win of the season, going six innings and allowing just one run. Quantrill has been upping his strikeout numbers recently, with nearly half coming in his last two starts. He has turned into a solid starter for a team desperate for quality pitching. As a DFA trade acquisition, Quantrill could be viewed as a guy the Rockies try to flip at the deadline or an arm to build around that has proven he can handle the mile high conditions of Colorado. 

Rockiest Rocky: The Front Office

This one might be cheating, but how much more do you have to see from Peter Lambert to know he isn’t a starter? You all have heard my rant on it before, but it’s getting ridiculous at this point. We have seen him thrive this season in a relief role, and throughout his career we have seen him be brutal as a starter. So naturally the front office that refused to trade Trevor Story and traded Nolan Arenado for pennies on the dollar continue to let Lambert falter in a starter role. Lambert went just three innings on Wednesday, giving up seven runs to raise his season ERA to 7.61. In his three starts this season, Lambert has given up 17 runs in 9.1 innings for an ERA of 16.80, compared to his 1.92 ERA this season out of the pen. The old saying goes “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results,” which is what the Rockies are doing with Lambert right now. 

Stat Pack

Offensive Highlights: 

Charlie Blackmon: 5-9, 4 RBI, 3 R, (series); .241 AVG, 13 RBI, 14 R (season totals)

Brenton Doyle: 3-12, 1 HR, 3 RBI; .276 AVG, 4 HR, 11 RBI

Elias Diaz: 4-12, 1 HR, 4 RBI; .311 AVG, 3 HR, .804 OPS

Sean Bouchard: 4-11, 1 RBI, 2 R; .286 AVG, 1 HR, .864 RBI

Pitching Highlights: 

Anthony Molina: 3.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 K; 6.89 ERA, 15.2 IP, 8 K

Dakota Hudson: 3.2 IP, 4 ER, 2 K; 0-6 W/L, 6.35 ERA, 34 IP

Ty Blach: 3 IP, 1 ER, 2 K; 3.46 ERA, 13 IP, 5 K

Victor Vodnik: 1.2 IP, 0 ER; 2.11 ERA, 21.1 IP, 18 K 

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