The Colorado Rockies are not a good baseball team. The Houston Astros are an elite baseball team. Those distinctions played out over and over as Tuesday night’s game went back and forth, with the Astros ultimately just too much for the Rockies as they cruised to an 11-6 win.
Overwhelming offense
The Houston offense just wouldn’t stop. German Márquez simply had no margin for error. He threw a couple changeups that weren’t as sharp and Yordan Alvarez and Yuli Gurriel hit home runs. He gave up eight hits and was constantly dealing with traffic and rallies. All told, the Astros scored five runs against Márquez in five innings.
After that, the Astros got their hands on the Rockies bullpen. I bet you can guess what happened. Chi Chi Gonzalez gave up a couple runs. Bryan Shaw threw some meatballs and had the results to show for it. They gave up six more runs and let this game get out of hand.
A few of the usual suspects on an Astros team full of stars had big nights. Michael Brantley had two hits and drove in two. Gurriel continued his tormenting of the Rockies in 2019 with two more home runs, and Carlos Correa had two hits and three RBI.
The Astros are deep and they just keep coming at you. The Rockies were able to hang for a while, but ultimately Houston was just too much for them.
Damage against on Zack Greinke
As they have done many times to the former Dodger and Diamondback, the Rockies hitters were once again able to get to Greinke. They scored five against him in his Houston debut, and he left with the game tied 5-5.
The big blow came on this home run from Raimel Tapia.
Tap Tap Tapparooo. Let's go! pic.twitter.com/waQrnBA5Ln
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 7, 2019
It was a hopeful sign that Colorado’s offense was able to show some punch on the road. Hopefully they can keep that going on nights where the pitching is better so they can improve that unsightly road record.
Looking ahead
The Rockies play the second and final game of this series in Houston on Wednesday. Peter Lambert will start against Gerrit Cole.