Angels 8, Rockies 0: Colorado falls as their offense continues to struggle

The Los Angeles Angels are a very good team. Splitting a two-game series with them is nothing to be ashamed of. However, how the Rockies lost today’s game sure made it easy to forget that they did just that and also won six straight games.

The Angles scored their first run on two batters into the game and then tacked on three more on a pair of home runs against Tyler Anderson in the third inning. With the Rockies yet to win a game that they trailed by more than two runs this season, the lead felt insurmountable and unfortunately that proved true.

Two of the rarely used members of the Rockies pen finally got some work and the end result was not good. Brooks Pounders and Mike Dunn both made their first appearances since April and gave up three runs in their two combined innings of work.

The streaks are over

Much has been said about the Rockies starting pitchers’ team-record streak of quality starts. Unfortunately, like all good things, it had to come to an end. Tyler Anderson allowed four runs in his five innings of work. While not a horrible start for a game played at Coors Field, it was a definite let down after the stretch of dominance that we saw from the rotation. Without a strong pitching performance the Rockies win streak was doomed as well.

Offensive slump continues

The bigger let down was that after the starting pitchers carried this offense for most of the road trip, the offense was unable to repay the favor and looks as listless as ever as they were shut down by a rookie starting pitcher. Despite being the type of game that perfect for a struggling offense to find it’s rhythm, the Rockies couldn’t take advantage of having a lead-off runner on in four of the first six innings. As a team, they went 0-for-12 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners total. It wasn’t just bad luck either as the team racked up 11 of their 14 strikeouts when there was a runner on.

Yes, those were boos

Ian Desmond’s struggles with the Rockies reached a new low today. As bad as his four strikeouts were (he only made contact with a single pitch, a foul ball), that’s nothing new. What was new was that the Rockies faithful that were at Coors Field started to boo him after his second strikeout with runners on and those boos got considerably louder after the third strikeout and they didn’t relent after his fourth.

For a fan base that is as friendly and laid back as any, it is quite an accomplishment for a Rockies player to get booed. The last Rockies player to get booed in Colorado that we could recall was Jeremy Guthrie all the way back in 2012.

What’s next

The Rockies welcome the Milwaukee Brewers to Coors Field for a four-game series starting on Thursday at 6:40 PM MT. Germán Márquez will attempt to start both a new winning and quality start streak for the Rockies and hopefully the Rockies offense will decide to show up.