The Rockies lost 2-1 to the Padres Sunday afternoon in 10 innings. With one out in the ninth, Jesús Tinoco walked Manny Machado. Bud Black then replaced Tinoco with Sam Howard, who faced one batter and walked him. Then Black replaced Howard with Yency Almonte (this series of events was exactly as fun as it sounds). Almonte gave up a single to Wil Myers to end the game.
Free baseball
There wasn’t much in the way of offense on Sunday, as the Rockies and Padres both managed just one run through the first nine innings. The Rockies got their run in the third in perhaps the most unexciting fashion imaginable: Drew Butera drove in Pat Valaika with a sacrifice fly.
The Padres got their run in the fourth, and it could have been more. Wil Myers hit a one out double, but Lambert picked him off at second base. Josh Naylor then doubled, but instead of driving in a run, he just replaced Myers at second base. Luis Urías eventually singled to bring Naylor home. That tied the game at one, and it stayed that way for a while.
Lambert shows progress
Of the five members of the Rockies’ rotation right now, Peter Lambert is the only one who looks like a really good bet to be in the rotation to start the 2020 season. His starts are worth paying attention to over the last three weeks of the season. In his start Sunday afternoon, Lambert showed progress. He allowed one run on five hits in five innings pitched. Lambert did walk three batters though, and he struck out four. Lambert threw 80 pitches, 51 for strikes. If the Rockies needed to win this game, he would have been out there for the sixth inning. It wasn’t a great outing, but it was nice to see.
Up next
The Rockies are off on Monday. On Tuesday they begin a nine-game home stand against the Cardinals, Padres, and Mets.