The Rockies dropped to 1-4 against teams with the worst record in their league Monday as they fell to the Marlins 3-1. (The Rockies also dropped three out of four to the Astros, the worst team in the American League earlier this season)
There's no sugarcoating this one. The Miami Marlins are an awful baseball team and this is a series the Rockies probably have to take advantage of if they want to make a run at the NL West. Coming into this series, the Marlins were an NL worst 14-34 on the road and had failed to score a run in 37 straight innings.
However, they were able to get on the board very quickly tonight against Drew Pomeranz with two runs in the first inning on a Giancarlo Stanton RBI double and a Placido Polanco sacrifice fly.
Pomeranz was awful again tonight as he failed to get through the fifth inning (just like he has in every other start this season), walked four guys (he's now walked 18 batters in just 16.2 innings), and gave up another home run - This time, a third inning solo shot to Ed Lucas who had ONE career home run entering tonight.
Troy Renck mentioned that a scout had this to say about Pomeranz tonight...
"The fastball is too easily seen from his release point, and his off speed stuff is (average). He also doesn't seem to have much confidence out there."
Pomeranz exited the game in the top of the fifth inning with one out and runners on first and second having already allowed three runs. However, that's all he would give up on the night as Manny Corpas came in and got Marcell Ozuna to hit a weak ground ball to short which induced a nifty looking double play from Troy Tulowitzki and DJ LeMahieu. Thanks to that work, Pomeranz actually saw his ERA drop from 8.76 to 8.10 tonight.
Corpas and Wilton Lopez would take the ball to the finish line from there without allowing another run to cross the plate, setting up what should have been a rare Rockies win in a Drew Pomeranz start. Unfortunately, the offense just didn't cooperate.
Marlins starter Tom Koehler had what appeared to be pretty hittable stuff tonight, but thanks to his refusal to walk hitters, the impatience of several Colorado hitters, and a little bit of luck, he was able to toss seven innings of one run baseball. The Rockies did have eight hits against him and lined out another five times, but they never were able to string anything together and went 0-6 with runners in scoring position. A Troy Tulowitzki solo home run in the fourth inning, his 17 blast of the season, accounted for all of the Colorado offense on the night.
The lack of offense has become a disturbing trend for this team of late. In their last 30 games, the Rockies have scored just 91 runs. What's even worse though is that 41 of those runs have come in just five games, meaning the that Rockies are AVERAGING JUST TWO RUNS A GAME IN THE OTHER 25!!! Colorado pitching has now allowed three runs or less in seven consecutive games, yet the team is just 4-3 in this stretch because the offense refuses to leave its cave of ineptitude.
Jordan Pacheco is still 0 - for the month of July, Nolan Arenado has not had an extra base hit since June 28th and has a .343 OPS since that date, and the club has just a 55 wRC+ since July 1st, which as you probably guessed, is by far the worst in baseball.
The question now becomes what is more likely to end first? The Rockies offense being atrocious, or the Rockies pitching staff giving the team a chance to win almost every time out? Surely this can't be who the Rockies really are just one summer removed from the decent offensive (.767 OPS as a team) and historically bad pitching club they were last season - Or can it?
Here's a really depressing graph...
Source: FanGraphs
One other important note on the night. The Los Angeles Dodgers scored 14 runs and clobbered the Blue Jays while the D'Backs fell to the Cubs 4-2 moving LA into first place. If the Dodgers stay hot and the D'backs continue to play mediocre baseball, it's possible that this is the last lead change the NL West race sees this season.
Roll Call
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BigSkyBirdDog, BrandonHawpe, CentralCaliRox, Charlie Drysdale, DomP, ES46NE10, Goeldfinger, Greg Stanwood, HiRanchBuff, Jordan Freemyer, Nephelimdream, Nick95, Northsider1964, Paleface Destro, PurpleToPurple, RhodeIslandRoxfan, RockedUp, Rockies7935, RockyMountainWay91, Rox the Casbah, SDcat09, Sjamb, The Lodo Magic Man, Thnikkaman, WanderingRoxFan, WhiskeyDrinkingMan, Yokel, evers44, hiflew, holly96, papality, personalspaceinvader, rockiesfan4ever, steakman
Record: 48-52
Games Behind: 4.0
Games Left: 62
Record needed to beat Keith Law's prediction: 6-56
Record needed to beat 2012: 17-45
Record needed to beat the Vegas Over / Under Number: 24-38
Record needed to finish above .500: 34-29
Number of Home Runs needed for Cargo, Tulo, and Rosario to combine for 100: 44
* * * * * *
This series continues Tuesday at 8:10 p.m. MT as the Marlins will send Jose Fernandez (5-5, 2.75) to the hill against Jhoulys Chacin (9-4, 3.50).