The Colorado Rockies entered the bottom of the eighth inning of their game Monday night against the Los Angeles Angels with a lead and seemingly on their way to a dramatic victory. Then a bunch of bad stuff happened and they lost 10-7.
Names that rhyme with no, or something (it’s late and I’m in Central Time)
Adam Ottavino and Seunghwan Oh combined forces to just make a mess of that half inning. There were walks—five of them in that inning alone and two of them to Mike Trout. There was a sacrifice fly, fast running from Trout, and a couple key hits. It was just really poor, sloppy pitching from two of the team’s more reliable relievers in a key spot.
Old friend alert
Who doesn’t love Eric Young, Jr.? Credit the light-hitting veteran, as he worked a great at-bat against Oh with the bases loaded to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs. He took some close pitches, he fouled off a lot of pitches, and he refused to chase when he was behind in the count. Oh eventually threw a pitch up over the plate and EY Jr. made him pay. The deciding blow wasn’t exactly a laser, but it was a back-breaking single to center field nevertheless.
Momentum swing! pic.twitter.com/gmDeHl4y7F
— Angels (@Angels) August 28, 2018
What would have been the winning hit
In a different world, DJ LeMahieu might have delivered a memorable game-winning hit with his grand slam to put the team up 7-5 in the top half of the eighth inning. Maybe in that world the Rockies also take advantage of the myriad other opportunities they had in this game and just put up a crooked number to blow the Angels out. Hopefully the late rally can at least spark the offense moving forward this week.
Looking ahead
The Rockies will try to split this two-game set with the Angels on Tuesday. Kyle Freeland will get the start.