The Colorado Rockies got beat up by the San Francisco Giants to the tune of a 14-4 final score on Tuesday night. There was one clear problem for the Rockies as they let this game get away from them.
Elusive third out
Antonio Senzatela looked like he was going to cruise through the fourth inning of a 1-1 game. Two outs, nobody on. No signs of trouble.
Then there was a Brandon Belt double. Then a walk to Evan Longoria. Then Senzatela started hanging a bunch of pitches and the Giants did damage. Mac Williamson hit a three-run home run. Kevin Pillar hit a two-run shot. So it was that it turned into a five-run inning and an omen for how the rest of the game would go.
Yency Almonte would relieve Senzatela and fail to clean up a two-out mess in the fifth inning, adding two more runs to the starter’s stats. Then Seunghwan Oh gave up a couple two-out runs in the eighth inning, and then D.J. Johnson fell apart with two outs in the ninth inning and surrendered five more runs.
All told, the Giants scored an astounding 12 runs with two outs. Yikes.
Raimel Tapia had three more hits
Two were left-on-left against Madison Bumgarner. Play this young man. The other bright spot on offense was Chris Iannetta. He delivered a home run and a double.
Bad run for the rotation
It’s always a dangerous game to take for granted that a young rotation will stay good after one good season. There’s still plenty of reason to think the Rockies’ rotation will be their strength this season. But this bad streak shows how quickly things can unravel. Kyle Freeland hasn’t looked right for a while, and then German Márquez has a rare bad start (in what was eventually a comeback win) and things feel bleak quickly.
Who will be the stopper this time? The guy pitching Wednesday certainly has the talent. And the Rockies certainly need him to step up.
Looking ahead
The Rockies will try to bounce back against the Giants on Wednesday. Derek Holland will start for the Giants against Jon Gray for the Rockies.