They won the series, but the Rockies were unable to complete the sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, losing 10-3 and still needing one victory to avoid a 100-loss season. They have not swept a series against the Cardinals in nine years. The Red Birds scored in each of their first four innings and the Rockies scored in each of their first three, but then things went quiet until the ninth inning.
No Melville Magic today
Tim Melville had a rough outing, allowing lead off home runs in each of his three innings of work. He ended up giving up five earned runs, four of which were solo home runs. He also walked two and only struck out one on 55 pitches. Melville gave up back-to-back home runs to start the game, including a 395-foot shot to Dexter Fowler on the first pitch of the game. The cleanest inning he had was the third, in which he gave up a home run to Marcell Ozuna but then retired the next three batters.
The bullpen (mostly) limits the damage
Even though Tim Melville struggled, the bullpen kept the game from getting out of hand in the middle innings — particularly Joe Harvey, James Pazos, and Yency Almonte. Jesus Tinoco relieved Tim Melville in the fourth inning and gave up a lead off home run for the fourth straight inning in the game. However, he was able to limit the damage and work around some traffic in the inning before being lifted in the next inning. He threw 23 pitches in the fourth inning. Joe Harvey pitched a 1-2-3 fifth with two strikeouts of Matt Carpenter and Andrew Knizner. DJ Johnson and James Pazos combined in the sixth, only allowing a single. Pazos continued in the seventh and only allowed one baserunner in his 1 1⁄3 innings. Yency Almonte got two quick strikeouts in the eighth, but Paul Goldschmidt hit a pinch hit double. Luckily Sam Howard was able to strike out Dexter Fowler to strand Goldy at second. Unfortunately, everything all of that work unraveled in the ninth inning with Wade Davis and Jake McGee.
Family flies
Josh Fuentes hit his first major league home run today — a 385-foot shot to left in the second inning. Not to be outdone by his cousin, Nolan Arenado knocked in the Rockies’ other two runs. He doubled in Garrett Hampson in the first and hit a 394-foot home run to left. All seven home runs by both teams were solo shots.
Way Up Way Out
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) September 12, 2019
Congratulations to Josh Fuentes on his first big league homer! pic.twitter.com/ew5fLiqkt8
Up Next
The Rockies welcome the San Diego Padres to town for a three game set — the last series against the Friars in 2019. It’s Friday the 13th, but hopefully the Rockies will have some luck. Jeff Hoffman is scheduled to pitch against Joey Lucchesi. First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. MT.