You win some, you lose some. Tonight was one of those “you lose” some games, as the Rockies fell to the Giants 4-3 and had their win-streak halted at four games.
Jon Gray earned a decision!
But it definitely wasn’t the one he was hoping for. After cruising through the first three innings of tonight’s game, everything fell apart for Gray in the fourth inning. An error in the third cost him the perfect game, but a home run in the fourth cost him the game.
The fourth started off with the second of two errors from the Rockies infield. In the third it was a ball through Daniel Murphy’s legs and it was a weird hop off Trevor Story’s glove in the fourth that allowed Mike Yastrzemski to reach. Alex Dickerson flied out to right, but then Donovan Solano hit a single to put men on first and second. Brandon Belt then smacked a 373-foot homer to right to give the Giants a 3-2 lead.
Gray’s record is now 0-1 and his ERA has gone from 2.61 to 3.31. His final line was 6 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 3 ER, HR, 2 K. He did not walk a batter.
Early scoring, but not enough rally
Going into that fateful fourth inning, the Rockies held a 2-0 lead. An early error by the third baseman Solano allowed David Dahl to reach in the first inning. He was eventually knocked in on an RBI single by Charlie Blackmon, who extended his hitting streak to nine games.
They also scored in the third inning, started by a single and stolen base for Sam Hilliard (Hilliard also had a diving catch in the ninth to save a base hit). A sacrifice by Dahl scored Hilliard. Then the Rockies’ bats went quiet until the seventh, when Nolan Arenado hit a 395-footer into the left field bleachers — his third in as many games. Unfortunately, the Giants had scored in the sixth so Arenado’s homer wasn’t quite enough.
watching this swing on repeat all night long pic.twitter.com/OvDJUiOmLo
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 6, 2020
There’s something about this bullpen
Gray was relieved by Tyler “Must See” Kinley in the seventh. Kinley pitched a 1-2-3 inning that included one of everything: a fly out, ground out, and strike out on ten pitches. So far in five appearances in 2020, Kinley has yet to yield a run and has six strikeouts.
Daniel Bard pitched the eighth and he had a little bit more trouble. He gave up a lead off double to Yastrzemski, which could’ve been scored an error on Dahl in center field. Yastrzemski never stopped running and once Dahl realized he was still running, he bobbled the ball a little bit and wasn’t able to get the out at second. However, Bard came back and got Dickerson to line out to center, which did push Yastrzemski to third. He finished off the inning with back-to-back strikeouts to Solano and Belt — one swinging and one looking.
Carlos Estévez finished out the game tonight. He faced the minimum like Kinley, getting Wilmer Flores to fly out to left. Pablo Sandoval hit a single, but he was wiped off the base paths by a 4-6-3 double play by Brandon Crawford.
The three relievers combined to pitch three innings, two hits, no runs, and three strikeouts. Including Gray, the Rockies pitchers did not walk a single batter tonight.
Up Next
The Rockies will look to win their fourth straight series tomorrow. Kyle Freeland will pitch against old friend Tyler Anderson. First pitch is at 1:10pm MT.