It looks as though the “June Swoon” has come a little early this year, as the Sim Rockies have lost five straight games. Not only have they lost five in a row, but they have been outscored 48-22 in those five games. They swept the Sim Tigers in Detroit, but have been on the losing end of three sweeps in their last five series, including the four game sweep over the weekend against Cincinnati.
The Rockies offense has started to show glimpses of getting themselves together, accounting for seven hits last night. But the pitching continues to struggle, especially at Coors Field, and that’s a lot of why we’re where we are.
Death by the long ball
The Giants accounted for 13 hits and six runs, five of which were earned via the home run. Brandon Crawford put the Sim Giants on the board first in the second inning with a two-run homer off of Kyle Freeland that scored Brandon Belt to make it 2-0 Sim Giants. Not to be outdone, Donovan Solano hit a solo shot of his own in the third to make it 3-0 Sim Giants. Alex Dickerson hit a two-run shot of his own off of Jake McGee in the eighth and Donovan Solano hit an RBI double in the ninth off of Jeff Hoffman to really put the nail in the 6-1 coffin.
Charlie Blackmon was the only Rockies player to plate a run, hitting a sacrifice fly in the fifth to score David Dahl and make the game (at that point) 3-1 Sim Giants.
Pitching woes continue
Kyle Freeland looked alright in his start, pitching five innings and yielding three earned runs on seven hits with a strikeout. However, all three of those runs were scored via the home run. He was relieved by Jairo Díaz, who pitched an inning and gave up a hit, followed by Carlos Estévez, who also pitched one inning and gave up a hit (but he also walked a batter and struck out another). Just when it looked like the Rockies pitching had started to calm things down, Jake McGee entered in the eighth. That’s where things really started to unravel.
McGee only pitched 1⁄3 of an inning, but he gave up two hits and two earned runs on a moon shot to Alex Dickerson. Wade Davis came in to clean up the mess, pitching the final 2⁄3 of the eighth and striking out a batter. Jeff Hoffman came on to pitch the ninth, but he also didn’t pitch the full inning, giving up one run on two hits during his 2⁄3 of the ninth. He also struck out a batter, so that’s something. Tim Collins pitched the final 1⁄3 of the ninth.
Pitching in Coors is hard, but the Sim Rockies need to figure some things out with their pitching before things really spiral too out of control.
Up Next
The Sim Rockies will (again) look to stop the bleeding against the Sim Giants. This game will be broadcast on YouTube, so check it out! Chi Chi González will take on Johnny Cueto at 6:45pm MT.