Giants 7, Rockies 6: Bard takes second loss in as many days

For the first time since Opening Day, the Colorado Rockies have a sub-.500 winning percentage.

Monday night’s game was classic Coors Field, with runs scoring in eight of 18 half-innings. 20 combined hits were enough to light some ERA’s on fire.

San Francisco’s Mike Yastrzemski would have the last laugh in the top of the ninth. Cover your eyes, Rockies fans:

Daniel Bard entered tonight’s game looking to avenge a Sunday blown save. He exited tonight’s game with his second-consecutive loss, a 4.05 ERA, and a bigger threat of Tyler Kinley taking over his closer duties.

Outside of one swing, Bard was great.

The outcome is humbling and agonizing all at once.

A baseball game is a nine-inning body of work, and Bard’s outing was far from the evening’s worst. The Rockies were forced to assemble seven innings of bullpen work with top relievers taxed from the day before.

The outcome: seven earned runs in seven relief frames.

Senzatela shines through two, exits with back discomfort.

Antonio Senzatela lowered his already-tremendous home ERA tonight, although his start was shortened far earlier than he would have hoped. He faced eight batters in two frames, allowing one hit, one walk and striking out three.

He was removed from the game during his third-inning warmup pitches, meaning reliever Ty Blach had unlimited time to get ready on the game mound. (This is far from the standard comforts of a bullpen warm-up).

Giants take advantage of middle relief

Blach’s first batter of the night was enough to question whether than game mound warmup was disorienting: Curt Casali immediately homered to left.

Blach’s final line: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 ER, 1 BB, 2 BB, 2 HR.

One bright spot of Blach’s showing: it did preserve a little bit of the Rockies’ relief core. With Bard and Kinley used on Sunday, Blach served as a bridge to get to the five-inning mark.

It was the seventh inning that really left a mark, however. Ashton Goudeau pitched a one-hit sixth but left consecutive hits on base to begin the seventh. Lucas Gilbreath would take over, immediately walked a batter, and an error by third baseman Ryan McMahon would give the Giants an eventual 5-4 lead.

Yastrzemski would then cash in one more on a sacrifice fly, scoring both of Goudeau’s runs.

Rockies break out the bats in the fifth, sixth and seventh

After a first-inning RBI single by Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies would remain off the scoreboard until Yonathan Daza, Charlie Blackmon and C.J. Cron came up big in the fifth. Three consecutive hits would score two runs.

It wouldn’t take long for the Rockies to answer back again, although Ryan McMahon’s sixth-inning homer to tie the game was quickly negated by his bases-loaded error in the seventh.

Cron kicked off some seventh-inning offense with a one-out single, cashing in Daza to make it a 5-6 game, and the heart of the order remained hot. It was then time for baseball at its finest: Ryan McMahon tied it up again.

The game gives, takes away, and gives:

At his locker postgame, McMahon was tough on his own defense, as reported by DNVR’s Patrick Lyons. McMahon would add 16.6% of win probability on offense, however, so he certainly answered back in effective ways.

Alex Colomé pitches a momentum-building eighth

It was 6-6 when Rockies setup man Alex Colomé came on for the eighth. He allowed one hit and pitched an otherwise scoreless frame, lowering his ERA to a 4.76. On a night without much bullpen to speak of, Colomé’s step forward should not be overlooked.

Yastrzemski goes second deck; Doval shuts it down

104.3 MPH off Yastrzemski’s bat, and a Daniel Bard slider would turn into a 7-6 lead for Giants closer Camilo Doval to preserve. He did just that, leaving a one-out walk on first base, shutting it down with a flyout, strikeout and groundout.

Up Next

Colorado will look to even the series on Tuesday night, with top performer Chad Kuhl returning to the hill against Giants starter Alex Cobb. Lest we forget last Wednesday, however: in an identical pitching matchup, Cobb came out heavily on top. He pitched 5 ¹⁄₃ innings of one-run action while Kuhl allowed five earned runs in 4 ¹⁄_3.

We shall meet again Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. MDT — and bullpen hero Tyler Kinley should be available.