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The string of horrific baseball from the Colorado Rockies continues as they drop yet another horrendous game, their sixth loss in a row. Errors and terrible pitching once again sabotaged the Rockies. In a night full of humiliations, it was Rex Brothers who flushed this game down the toilet, as he faced five batters in the eighth inning and let all of them score. The Rockies lost 16-8, despite holding an 8-5 lead heading into that inning. Hell of a night.
Jordan Lyles again displayed iffy control, and two defensive miscues from Charlie Culberson led to a three run first inning for the D'Backs. In fact, in covering home plate in that inning after a wild pitch Lyles suffered a hurt left wrist. He pitched three more innings, but was pulled before the fifth inning and allowed four runs on the night. Who knows if it's going to affect his next start.
For the first time in an age, the Rockies actually showed some life with the bats. They tied the game up in the fifth inning when Troy Tulowitzki blasted a bases loaded double to center field, followed by a Michael Cuddyer bloop to right. In the seventh, down 5-4, the offense again came alive as the Rockies loaded the bases. They almost blew it (let's be honest, we all thought they would), before DJ LeMahieu punched a ball into the hole at short. Chris Owings threw wildly and two runs scored. Drew Stubbs followed with a two RBI single. 8-5 Rockies. Then came the eighth.
As former Purple Row Great Andrew Fisher noted on Twitter, "On June 4, 2013, Rex Brothers dropped his ERA to 0.35. On June 4, 2014, he saw it rise to 5.47." At this point it really looks like Rex has to be the guy sent down when Eddie Butler gets activated. His command, his ability to strike people out, his very mental toughness is entirely absent this year.
Who do we trust out of the bullpen at this point? Boone Logan has not been as good as advertised. Adam Ottavino has been good but not untouchable. LaTroy Hawkins is barely serviceable. Belisle is...I have no idea what Belisle is. He was a train wreck tonight. These are our late inning guys. They don't get people out, and they all cratered at once. Call up Chris Martin? Put Winkler or Matzek in the bullpen?
Oh, and Troy Tulowitzki looked ginger on the base paths. Another thing to worry about.
I'm generally not the type of guy to rip into a team's mentality. These guys are professionals, they have been through it all before, and have a history of performance. But I have never seen a team do everything in their power to blow baseball games. Where is the instinct to get the big out? The ability to step on a team when they are down? Rockies games are just marathons to see the next innovative way to screw up.
So I don't know. Hug a family member. Watch a favorite movie. Have a shot of bourbon. The Rockies will be out there tomorrow. Maybe it'll be better then.
For the record, the Rockies are 28-30, two games below .500. They have a better record now than they had in both 2007 (27-30) and 2009 (21-32) at this date. Just something to chew on.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2014-06-04&team=Rockies&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2014-06-04&team=Rockies&dh=0&season=2014">FanGraphs</a></span>