Before we get to the game recap, here’s some Simon and Garfunkel to set the mood.
In a quarter century of Rockies baseball, there have been some bad teams. Six times they have failed to win 70 games (seven if you count the strike-shortened 1994 season), but none of those teams, not the inaugural team in 1993, not the teams of the Todd and the Toddlers era, not even when they resorted to Project 5183 in 2012, did the Rockies produce a week of baseball as ugly as this one.
During their six-game losing streak, which extended with Monday’s 9-2 loss to the Giants, the Rockies have been outscored 57-17, that’s a run differential of -40. Not only have the Rockies lost six in a row, they have done so by nearly seven runs per game. That is just being uncompetitive.
On Monday, the Rockies were completely uncompetitive against one of the worst teams in the league, the San Francisco Giants. Germán Márquez continued a run of poor starts from the pitching staff, throwing 86 pitches in just four innings of work in which he allowed five runs, all earned, on seven hits, walking a pair and striking out a pair, putting the Rockies in a 5-0 hole.
After two scoreless innings from Antonio Senzatela in his first relief appearance of the season, the Rockies showed some life on offense, putting together four singles in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 5-2 with one out. However, Giants reliever Hunter Strickland struck out Pat Valaika and, after a walk, got DJ LeMahieu to ground out to end the threat.
The rest of the bullpen was not able to replicate Senzatela’s success, as Chad Qualls gave up a run in the seventh and Jairo Diaz coughed up three in his season debut in the eighth to put the game out of reach.
If this isn’t rock bottom for the 2017 Rockies, I don’t know what is.
The Rockies will look to snap their six-game losing streak Tuesday night in San Francisco, with Jeff Hoffman on the mound against Matt Cain. First pitch is scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Mountain time.