DENVER — The Rockies lost to the Marlins 6-2 Saturday afternoon at Coors Field. Gerardo Parra drove in both of the Rockies’ runs, one by way of a sacrifice fly and one by way of a summer-time home run. The loss drops the Rockies back under .500, to 38-39.
Bryan Shaw’s nightmare season continues
Tyler Anderson was pitching a fine game, but three-consecutive singles in the seventh inning put the Rockies down 2-1 and pushed him from the game. Bud Black opted to go with Bryan Shaw in relief. Shaw has had his fair share of high profile meltdowns in 2018, so Rockies fans were reasonably skeptical about putting the game in his hands. All Shaw did was add fuel to the “hoo boy this bullpen is something else” fire by giving up an infield single and then a grand slam to JT Realmuto.
“Looking at the Statcast it was out of the zone up,” Shaw said. “That’s kind of where you want to throw those pitches.”
That turned a winnable 2-1 game into a 6-1 feeling of inevitable defeat. Season-wise, Shaw’s ERA now sits at 7.57; game-wise, he had a -.152 WPA. But we don’t really need advanced stats to search for the goat of the game.
A little help?
A competitive team really needs three, maybe four, good relievers. It depends on how many innings the starting pitchers give. Tyler Anderson had a pretty good start on Saturday; he struck out eight batters in six innings. But he couldn’t record an out in the seventh, which led to Shaw’s appearance, and that led to putting the game out of reach.
“I’m not sure whether he tired in the seventh, but the ball got elevated a little bit,” Rockies manager Bud Black said.
The thin bullpen has something to do with a game like today, but it’s also necessary to look at how the starters create the bullpen’s situations.
Up next
German Márquez and Caleb Smith get the starts in tomorrow’s series finale. First pitch is at 1:10 MT.