For five innings, it looked good. The Sim Rockies got down 2-0, but battled back to tie it and then take a 5-3 lead. In the fifth inning, Sim Chicago bounced back to tie it at 5-all. Then in the seventh inning, the White Sox (22-26) rallied for four runs, taking a 9-5 lead that was too much for Colorado to overcome. The loss dropped the Rockies to 20-28 on the season, ending a two-game winning streak, and giving the White Sox a 3-1 series win on the season.
Gray was OK, Harvey not so much
Jon Gray seemed to be getting by alright for the first five innings, but odd mistakes turned into runs early. He hit the first batter of the game, Leury García. He then paid for that when Tim Anderson doubled, and Eloy Jiménez hit a sacrifice grounder to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead in the first. In the second inning, José Abreu singled and then advanced to second and then third and a pair of wild pitches. He later scored easily on Yasmani Grandal’s RBI single as Chicago took a 2-0 lead. The third and fourth innings passed without damage and Gray even found himself with a 4-2 advantage before Joey Mendick led off with a double and Yoán Moncada brought him home on a single to make it 4-3 Rockies. Gray was able to get two outs and then Tony Wolters ended the threat when he threw out Moncada trying to steal second. Then came disaster. Jiménez doubled to start things off, but then Gray struck out Edwin Encarnacion for the first out and his fifth strikeout of the day. The Rockies lost the lead for good when Abreu hit a two-run homer to tie the game at five in the sixth inning. Tim Collins relieved Gray, ending the inning without further damage.
Enter Joe Harvey and an odd fielding choice. After giving up a leadoff single to Mendick, García bunted, Harvey scooped it up, and then threw to second instead of first, resulting in no outs and runners on first and second. Moncada followed with an RBI single and Encarnacion ended all hope with a three-run homer (his 20th of the year) to put the White Sox up 9-5. Harvey suffered his first loss of the year. Jeff Hoffman, James Pazos, and Wade Davis finished the game for the Rockies.
More Rockies home runs
After hitting one home run (Trevor Story) in Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Marlins and two home runs (Story and Charlie Blackmon) on Tuesday in the 6-5 win in Chicago, the Rockies hit three home runs on Wednesday. David Dahl hit his fifth homer of the year in the second inning, a two-run shot to tie the game. In the fifth inning, Dahl hit a double, which also happened to be his 24th on the season to lead the National League. Nolan Arenado then smashed a 447-foot homer to put the Rockies up 4-2. Sam Hilliard also got in on the action, hitting his first homer of the year, which also happened to be his first extra base hit of the season. It was a solo shot that put the Rockies up 5-3. Hilliard is batting .091 on the season and hopefully this can get his bat going.
In need of more clutch hitting and better base running
The Rockies certainly had plenty of chances to score more, but couldn’t take advantage. After Daniel Murphy doubled and Garrett Hampson walked in the second inning, Hilliard struck out. Story singled in the third inning, but then Blackmon hit into a double play. In the fourth inning, Murphy singled and Hampson walked to give the Rockies runners on first and second with one out. Hilliard struck out and Wolters grounded out. Hampson led off the sixth with a walk, but then got picked off. Hilliard hit his homer in the next at bat, which made it hurt even more. In the seventh inning, Story doubled to start things off, but then got thrown out at third trying to advance on a wild throw. In the following at bat, Blackmon singled, which would have easily scored Story had he still been at second.
Watch it here
Up next
The Rockies are off on Thursday to travel back to Coors Field where they will begin a seven-game homestand against the Phillies and Dodgers. It will be the first leg of 17 games in 17 days for Colorado. Up first are the Phillies, with game one starting at 6:45 p.m. MT on Friday.