Colorado Rockies continue to struggle, fall to Giants 4-3 in 14 innings

Just when you thought this stretch of bad baseball couldn’t get worse, Tuesday night/Wednesday morning proved otherwise. The Rockies fell 4-3 in a miserable 14-inning game.

Jeff Hoffman looked good early on, as he retired the first seven batters he faced. He didn't hit his first rough patch until the bottom of the third when he gave up a one-out single to Gorkys Hernandez. Hernandez advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Matt Cain, and Denard Span ripped a sharp single to right field to open up the scoring. The run didn't seem to phase Hoffman, though, as he then retired Joe Panik on a pop up to end the inning.

For the first five innings it felt like your typical late-night AT&T game, with little-to-no offense to be found -- a feeling the Rockies have known all too well the last week or so.

Mark Reynolds, of course, was the man to finally change that.

After Raimel Tapia singled, Cain intentionally walked Nolan Arenado to face Reynolds. Reynolds seemed to take this personally, as he launched a three-run bomb (the first home run by a Rockie since Thursday) over the left-field fence, giving the Rockies a 3-1 lead.

The Giants countered with a run in the bottom of the sixth, and ended up knocking Hoffman out of the game in the bottom of the seventh with two outs after getting two men on base.

Bud Black called upon Scott Oberg to get the Rockies out of the jam, and he did just that. Hunter Pence popped up to shallow left field, securing the Rockies’ lead heading into the eighth inning.

Not to be overlooked, Hoffman put together a much-needed start for the Rockies. He went 6 ²⁄₃ innings, allowing six hits and two earned runs. He struck out six and walked three.

Oberg remained in the game to face Buster Posey, but a lead-off single gave way to Jake McGee. McGee got one out before Brandon Crawford ripped a single and Kelby Tomlinson blooped a hit in front of Raimel Tapia to tie the game at three.

The score remained the same until the 14th inning. FOURTEENTH INNING.

Chris Rusin pitched three dominate innings, Mike Dunn retired the two batters he faced, Greg Holland pitched a clean 1 ¹⁄₃ innings, and Chad Qualls was the losing pitcher, giving up the walk-off single to Denard Span.

The Rockies managed to get a runner on base in every single extra inning, but poor baserunning and just all around awful hitting led to the embarrassing loss.

The Rockies have one more shot to salvage this awful series tomorrow at 1:45 PM MST.