The Colorado Rockies had the kind of night that makes baseball romantics wax poetic about the sport. It was almost one of their most exciting and dramatic wins of the season. Instead they came up just short, and that potential excitement quickly turned into a crushing 5-4 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Missed opportunities
The Rockies left runners on from the first inning to the ninth inning in this game. They left 19 on base in total. All of those hurt in a one-run game, but none more than the Nolan Arenado strikeout on a check swing that ended this one.
Aaron Nola started and dominated, and the Rockies only got the bats going against the Philly bullpen. After a ninth-inning rally of singles from the bottom of the order to make it 5-3, the Rockies had the top of the order with the bases loaded and nobody out. DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon both hit balls to the warning track for outs, and even though the Rockies still had the right man up with the tying run on second, they came up short. Not fun.
Scott Kingery had a night
I know what you’re thinking, and yes I do mean the Scott Kingery who is the owner of a .212/.270/.318 slash line so far in 2018. On this night the light-hitting shortstop drove in four runs, including the killer blow with a three-run home run in the first inning. It was a wall-scraper that would make the starkest Coors truther blush, but Kingery made Jon Gray pay for walks and then a big fat mistake nevertheless. Those are the things that happen when you’re on a losing streak I guess.
Jon Gray provided lots of Twitter fodder
If you wanted to be mad online about the Rockies starting pitcher, you couldn’t go wrong on this night. Mad that he’s been bad? His disastrous first inning was juicy material to work with. Insistent that he’s still got it? His bounceback to go six innings and strike out 10 hitters is just for you.
Back on Planet Earth where baseball seasons are long and no one half-inning or single start proves anything definitive, Gray was undone by bad command early. That kind of thing happens. If the offense puts up a bunch of runs or finishes their comeback, we’re complimenting Gray for bouncing back. Their late rally fell short though, so a big part of this loss goes on him instead.
Bryan Shaw oh no
He was so close to working a clean inning in what looked like mop-up duty. It was 4-1 in the eighth inning. Bad command put Shaw in trouble, and with two outs he gave up the crucial insurance run that made it 5-1. It’s all still bad.
Tom Murphy though!
At some point he had to be rewarded for the way he was scorching Triple-A pitching. Murphy finally got called up and started, and he didn’t disappoint with three hits where he used the big part of the field. He drove in a couple runs, including in the ninth inning rally, and should certainly have earned a longer look in the starting lineup.
Looking ahead
The Rockies will try to have short memories and bounce back against the Phillies on Wednesday with Tyler Anderson on the mound against Nick Pivetta.