The Rockies dropped the series finale in Pittsburgh, 14-6, on Thursday afternoon. After rallying in the sixth to make it 8-6, Carlos Estevez gave up three home runs in the seventh to give the Pirates a 14-6 lead. The victory helped the Pirates to avoid the sweep and the Rockies head home with a 3-5 roadtrip.
Should we call it a comeback?
The Rockies were dead in the water with one out in the sixth inning. Down 8-0 with the top of the lineup, seven of the next eight hitters reached base, including two-run singles from Brendan Rodgers and pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy, brought the score to 8-6. All six runs ended up being charged to Jordan Lyles, who had retired 14 in a row before the rally started.
6️⃣ in the 6️⃣ᵗʰ
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 23, 2019
Let's goooo!! pic.twitter.com/rwZUOAHA27
The Pirates had a rally of their own in the seventh, but in any case it goes to show you can’t really ever count these Rockies out completely.
Not Senza’s day
If the Rockies were going to pull off a sweep they would need another good starting pitching performance from Antonio Senzatela, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Senza gave up a two run home run to Gregory Polonco, an RBI double from Melky Cabrera (who, yes, is still in the league), and a single to Colin Moran—and that was the first inning. It became really clear it wasn’t his day when Jordan Lyles (yes, that Jordan Lyles) earned a one-out single with the bases loaded to extend the Pirates lead to 7-0. In all he gave up eight runs on nine hits with three walks and two strikeouts over 3 1⁄3 innings.
Blackmon hits, leaves
Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a single, extending his on-base streak to 18 games. But then, somewhat mysteriously, he was pulled from the game in the bottom of the fourth inning and replaced with Ian Desmond. We’ll keep an eye out for more word on what’s going on with Chuck Nazty but hopefully it doesn’t mean any extended loss of time.
Fun fact
It wasn’t a super fun day, but there was this little nugget of interest:
Amazing stat, thanks to Nick Parsons of #Rockies media relations and @EliasSports:
— Patrick Saunders (@psaundersdp) May 23, 2019
Today’s starting lineup 1st in franchise history in which all players were originally signed by Colorado as either Rockies draftees or non-drafted free agents and made their MLB debuts as Rockies
It was the first such occurance in 4,199 franchise games. So that’s pretty cool.
Up Next
The Rockies return home for a nice 10-game homestand on Friday, starting with three against the Orioles (15-34). John Means (5-4, 2.68 ERA) will take the mound for the Birds but there is no official word on who will start for the Rockies. There is some reasonable speculation that Jeff Hoffman will get the call but that remains to be see as of publishing. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm MT.