Padres 14, Rockies 13: Wade Davis blows it again as Rockies lose a wild game

The Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres played a weird, long game on Sunday. It included a delay due to a broken water line, a weather delay, and 17 combined runs in the first three innings alone. It also ended with a brutal loss for the Rockies as they blew a three-run lead in the ninth inning and lost 14-13.

The Rockies have a Wade Davis problem

Listen, Mike Dunn was a bigger problem Saturday, but Davis was a party to both heartbreaking losses this weekend. He got a clean inning and a 13-10 lead in this one, and he continued to spray his pitches all over the place. The problem with having no command, at least in his case, is that when he does throw strikes they are meatballs.

After issuing two walks and letting one run score, Davis threw one down the pipe to Greg Garcia with two runners on. That pitch was sent into the gap for a triple. I’m not sure what the answer is, but it can’t be this. Even when Davis gets the save he misses spots all over the place, as evidenced by his 5.21 ERA. If he doesn’t fix that, the Rockies can’t keep going to him to close games.

And then Jon Gray did a bad thing

So Matt Strahm is a pitcher most days. He was a pinch hitter in Sunday’s weird game with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth inning. Gray was making a rare relief appearance, and it seemed like he was set up to get the Rockies out of it when they intentionally walked the bases loaded against a team that was out of pinch hitters. Gray walked Strahm to put the winning run across. Ugly.

Charlie Blackmon is in some kind of zone

Chuck added three more hits on Sunday afternoon, including a home run and three more RBI. He has posted Little League stats in this series, setting a Major League record for hits in a four-game series with 15.

His slow start is a distant memory, and he is a driving force for what has become a dominant offense.

A bunch of other guys are hot at the plate too

Such as it is when the team scores this many runs, lots of Rockies had a good day and a good series. Ian Desmond is red hot and delivered three more hits. That included an RBI double. Trevor Story stayed hot and hit an opposite field home run.

Ryan McMahon had three more hits and three driven in. Raimel Tapia bounced back with three hits of his own. Even Peter Lambert had two hits. Oddly enough, the only guy with a zero in the hit column was Nolan Arenado.

The offense is absolutely humming. Unfortunately the pitching up and down the staff is headed the wrong direction, which threw a wrench in things in two awful losses this weekend.

Lambert’s first hiccup

After two good starts against the Chicago Cubs to start his big league career, Lambert tripped up here against the Padres. He allowed eight earned runs on nine hits in just three innings. There was some weirdness with the water line delay, but in the end the kid just didn’t have it on Sunday.

Jesus Tinoco, though!

It was a bright spot to see him shine in long relief here. The young righty went three innings and blanked the Padres to bring some temporary sanity to a day at the Coors Field circus. This is also good because it means we won the trade.

Looking ahead

The Rockies get a day off that they can definitely use on Monday before starting an NL West road trip on Tuesday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.