Pirates 10, Rockies 2: Colorado drops final game of the series

It’s hard to get a sweep in baseball. It’s even harder as a road team. The Colorado Rockies had a chance to do the improbable against a Pittsburgh Pirates team that was 11-4 entering the series and unfortunately came up just a little short. After taking the first two games of the series, the Rockies fell to the Pirates 7-2 to conclude their road trip with a very impressive 5-2 record.

A promising start, a sad ending

Chris Iannetta got the Rockies on the board early with a 432-foot home run in the third inning. In the previous two games, the Rockies had taken similar early leads and made them stick. On Monday, they added to the lead, and on Tuesday, Chad Bettis and the bullpen shut down the Pirates.

Unfortunately, neither was the case today. The Rockies offense failed to score again until the eighth inning and by then it was far too little, too late. Kyle Freeland was cruising through the Pirates lineup, having allowed only one hit when the wheel fell off in the fourth inning. After getting two quick outs, Freeland allowed a walk followed up by a two-run homer to Sean Rodriguez. Freeland escaped the fourth after allowing only one more run, but the issues continued into the fifth.

Bullpen struggles

After showing their dominance through the first games of the series, the soft underbelly of the Rockies bullpen was exposed as they picked up where Freeland left off. Scott Oberg let all of his inherited runners score and also gave up two of his own runs. Mike Dunn allowed three more runs in the eighth.

Looking ahead

The Colorado Rockies have a well deserved off day on Thursday. Despite the weather-related cancellations across the league, they’ve manage to play every single one of their scheduled 20 games in the first 21 days of the season and have not had an off day since April 1. They’ll return to action on Friday when Nolan Arenado rejoins the team and they’ll host the Chicago Cubs at Coors Field with a 6:40 PM MT start time.