Colorado Rockies game no. 23 thread: José Ureña vs. Zack Wheeler

The Rox snapped their eight-game losing streak on Thursday with a 5-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, but have fallen 4-3 in each of their last two games since then. To make matters worse, they lost Kris Bryant to another back injury after his first at-bat (a swinging strikeout, to boot). If goes to the IL, it would definitely be another big blow for a struggling Rockies team. He currently ranks second on the team in batting average (.288) and, perhaps more importantly, games played (21). On the mound, Kyle Freeland allowed three home runs, all solo shots, that matched the total for his previous four starts combined.

José Ureña will take the mound for the Rox. Ureña has been struggling so far this year. In his last start against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he allowed a season-high five earned runs through 4 ²⁄₃ innings with seven hits and two home runs allowed. In his previous start against the St. Louis Cardinals, he allowed three runs and struck out six over five innings. The good news was that it was his longest outing of the year after failing to make it out of the third in his first two starts of the year, and his strikeouts were up and walks were down; the bad news is that all three of those runs came on home runs (a solo shot and a two-run shot). Ureña has allowed seven home runs this year — tied for second-most in MLB, and tied for the most in the NL.

He will pitch against Zack Wheeler. In his last start against the Chicago White Sox, Wheeler allowed four runs on eight hits over five innings with five strikeouts and one hit batter. It was his worst outing since his first against the Texas Rangers. The 32-year-old was drafted sixth overall by the San Francisco Giants in 2009, but was traded to the New York Mets in 2011 as part of the Carlos Beltran trade. He made his MLB debut in 2013 with the Mets and pitched five seasons with them before becoming a free agent and signing with the Phillies in 2019.

Let’s see if the Rockies can split the series this morning!

First Pitch: 10:05 a.m. MDT

TV: Peacock

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Lineups: