Reds 3, Rockies 2: Nolan Arenado shines in first loss of year

The Colorado Rockies lost their first game of the year this afternoon in a 3-2 game against the Cincinnati Reds. It was the first of many such losses, just as yesterday's win was the first of many 2014 wins for Colorado. MLB's got a really long season...and there's still a month of practice baseball to go before the Rockies will start accumulating regular season stats.

Nolan Arenado was the lone regular who cracked this afternoon's starting lineup, and he impressed by going 3-3 with three singles and a RBI, totals that represented a third and a half of Colorado's production in those categories respectively. He's a guy that really can make the leap this year...and Colorado's contention hopes (or at least their hopes on hitting the over on their 76.5 Vegas win total) will hinge upon him doing just that.

The Rockies had some guy named Brandon Lyles who looked pretty good:

Scout says Brandon Lyles threw 91-94 today, with good action when he was down in the zone. #Rockies

— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) March 1, 2014

(Jordan) Lyles got the start and was on the mound for two of the three Reds runs:

Line for #Rockies Brandon Lyles: 2 innings, 2 runs (1 earned), three hits, 1 K.

— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) March 1, 2014

Can you imagine if all we got for Dexter Fowler was a super player that melded the talents of Brandon Barnes and Jordan Lyles into one super-player? Lamest super player ever.

The 23 year-old Lyles did get groundball outs on five of the six batters he retired, but if he wants to outlast the likes of Juan Nicasio, Franklin Morales, or Christian Friedrich for the final spot in the starting rotation he'll need to distinguish himself more than he did today.

Matt Belisle (a guy I'm really worried about for 2014) allowed the other run for the Rockies in the 3rd inning, then five relievers each tossed a scoreless inning. Unfortunately for Colorado, the Rockies were also scoreless after the 5th inning and went down despite outhitting the Reds 9-8 on the afternoon.

Roll Call

Somehow I'll get over the crushing nature of this defeat, but it might take a while.