The Colorado Rockies were once again stymied by old friend Jhoulys Chacín and couldn’t get the bats going until it was too late on Tuesday night. This wasted another good start from German Márquez, although it was one with one big blemish that put the Brewers on track to beat the Rockies 4-3.
From perfect game hype to blah
Márquez dominated the Brewers through five perfect innings. He was efficient and unhittable. Then Ben Gamel broke it up with a double to the warning track and Márquez went on to surrender a run. Things still looked OK.
Then Márquez faced Rockies killer Jesús Aguilar with two on in the seventh inning and this happened:
Here's another example of why #WeBelieveInJesús! #ThisIsMyCrew pic.twitter.com/SrEFTbqtFz
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) May 1, 2019
That’s his third home run of the season. It’s also his third home run of the season against the Rockies and his third home run in the last two days.
Chacín continues to baffle the Rockies
Nobody would argue that our pal Jhoulys was sharp in this game. He was spraying his fastball all over the place, fighting his pitch count, falling behind in counts and walking three hitters. But when he needed to make a pitch he did. Chacín consistently spotted his slider in the bottom of the zone when he needed it, and the Rockies hitters consistently popped it up or just got under it.
In the end, Chacín out-dueled Márquez by going six shutout innings. If you watched the first five innings of this one, you know how surprising that outcome was.
Too little, too late
The Rockies avoided the shutout and almost tied things up with a rally in the ninth inning. Nolan Arenado drove in Daniel Murphy and then Ian Desmond hit a two-run homer to make the score 4-3. Unfortunately the rally came up short, as Mark Reynolds struck out in a pinch hitting appearance to end the game.
Reynolds was pinch hitting for Raimel Tapia, by the way. I know Josh Hader is brutal against lefties, but I am not a fan of that decision. And I am definitely not a fan of the fact that Desmond’s home run will have him in the lineup again tomorrow. If that was going to happen, the Rockies could have at least done us all the favor of turning it into a comeback win.
Looking ahead
The Rockies will try to win their first game of this four-game set on Wednesday night with Antonio Senzatela on the mound opposite Chase Anderson.