Sweeping concern
D-backs sweep Rockies, who have only half-game lead for wild card
I f the Rockies’ postseason hopes die, the tombstone will read “RISP.”
Because nothing has so defined the Rockies’ continuing slide from grace as their failure to hit with runners in scoring position.
That maddening trend continued Sunday at Coors Field with a 5-1 loss to streaking Arizona. The Diamondbacks completed the three-game series sweep with ease, won their 10th consecutive game and are now running away with the National League’s top wild-card playoff spot.
“We just have not played very well for the last two or even three weeks,” second baseman DJ LeMahieu said in a somber and nearly empty Rockies clubhouse. “We have scratched out some wins here and there, but we just haven’t played like ourselves.
“We have so much talent, so I expect that one of these days we are going to turn it around and get on a roll here.”
They had better do it sooner rather than later. Sunday’s loss was Colorado’s fourth straight and its 10th in its last 14 games. The Rockies have seen their once-comfortable lead for the NL’s second wildcard spot evaporate, and that’s coincided with their inability to come through with big hits in the clutch. During those 14 games, the Rockies have scored two or fewer runs five times and three or fewer runs nine times.
Little wonder Milwaukee is breathing down the Rockies’ neck for the NL’s second wild card. The Brewers (72-65) beat Washington 7-2 on Sunday to pull within a half game of the Rockies (72-64). The Diamondbacks’ lead over the Rockies for the top wild-card spot surged to 6K games at 79-58.
First-year Rockies manager Bud Black is trying to keep his club’s slump in perspective entering a three-game series against San Francisco that starts Monday at Coors Field.
“Tough series for sure. Tough series,” Black said. “They outhit us, they outpitched us, they outdefended us. So it was a tough series. We have to bounce back. There’s a game tomorrow against the Giants that we’re going to come out and play our game and hopefully we can outhit and outpitch the Giants.”
During the sweep, Arizona’s starting pitchers — Taijuan Walker, Patrick Corbin and Zack Godley — combined for a 1.10 ERA in high-altitude LoDo.
Black altered his lineup Sunday — all-star third baseman Nolan Arenado got some rest and didn’t start, usual leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon batted third and Le-
Mahieu led off — but it didn’t matter.
A snapshot of the Rockies’ woes came in the eighth inning. Blackmon reached on a leadoff single, and Gerardo Parra advanced him to second with a bunt single. But reliever Jimmy Shefry entered the game and whiffed Trevor Story, Arenado (pinch hitting) and Pat Valaika. That caused a smattering of boos from what remained of the announced crowd of 33,838.
The Rockies managed only three hits off Godley, and although the right-hander issued six walks, the Rockies failed to cash in. They finished the game 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, continuing a trend that has come to define their failure in the second half of the season. They went 2-for-30 with runners in scoring position over the series.
“We’re just putting a lot of pressure on ourselves,” said LeMahieu, the defending National League batting champion. “It’s one of those things. Everyone is trying. Everyone is trying really hard. Everyone is focused. But in baseball it sounds weird, but the harder you try, sometimes the harder it is. We have to get back to finding that happy medium.”
The Rockies’ lone run Sunday came in the fifth inning when Blackmon singled home LeMahieu.
Arizona, meanwhile, came through with big hits off rookie right-hander German Marquez. David Peralta slugged an RBI double in the third to put the Diamondbacks ahead 1-0, but it was the sixth inning that was Marquez’s undoing. Ketel Marte led off with a solo homer to left, followed by an opposite-field two-run shot to right by Brandon Drury. Marquez looked dominant at times, striking out nine (six of them looking), while walking none. But the home runs were his Achilles’ heel, and he lost at Coors Field for the first time in his last 10 starts.
Chris Ianetta, a former Rockies catcher, added a solo homer off reliever Carloz Estevez in the eighth to tie a bow on the Diamondbacks’ sweep. It was Ianetta’s 14th homer of the season.