The Colorado Rockies wrapped up a disappointing 3-6 home stand with an 11-3 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday night. Starting pitcher Kyle Freeland was unable to get out of the fourth inning and the offense continued to struggle as the Rockies get ready to go out on their most important—and likely most difficult—road trip of the season.
The Giants got on the board early when Austin Slater singled home a pair of unearned runs thanks to a rare error by Nolan Arenado two batters earlier. They tacked on three more—and forced Freeland out of the game—in the fourth inning thanks to a pair of singles from Kelby Tomlinson and Gorkys Hernandez, a walk to Ryder Jones, and a double off the bat of Joe Panik. Freeland’s night ended after just 3 1⁄3 innings in which he allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits with a pair of walks and four strikeouts.
After Carlos Gonzalez’s RBI single got the Rockies on the board in the fifth, the Giants immediately came back with two runs of their own to make it 7-1 in the sixth. Panik continued to take the Rockies to the woodshed with yet another RBI double—his 10th hit of 12 in the series—before the seventh run was tacked on with Brandon Crawford’s bloop single. Mac Williamson made sure the rout was really on with his pinch-hit solo home run in the seventh to make it 8-1 Giants.
Once again it was a struggle for the Rockies to get anything going offensively. Giants’ starter Johnny Cueto held them to just a run on five hits in five innings of work. He walked only one and struck out seven in his second outing off the disabled list. Charlie Blackmon hit his 34th homer of the year in the seventh, but for the 13th time in their last 17 games the Rockies were held to four runs or fewer. That kind of offensive output won’t get it done most of the time, as evidenced by the Rockies’ 20-52 record in such games. A long two-run home run by Nick Hundley, Gerardo Parra’s sac fly, and a Hernandez RBI fielder’s choice wrapped up the scoring to give the Giants an 11-3 victory.
With the loss, the Rockies fall to 74-65 on the season and will take either a two or two and a half game lead in the Wild Card chase into an extraordinarily difficult eight-game road trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The Giants improve to 55-87 and avoid being officially eliminated from playoff contention for at least one more day. On Thursday night, Jon Gray takes the ball for the Rockies against Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers.