ROCKIES SWEPT AT HOME BY LOS ANGELES DODGERS
The current script is going to lead to the Rockies’ ruin.
Act I: Score early. Act II: Offense goes cold. Act III: Pitching collapses.
All of those elements were on display in a maddening Sunday matinee at Coors Field, where the Rockies blew a 6-1 lead and ended up losing 10-7 to the Dodgers, who finished off a three-game sweep. The five-run deficit the Dodgers overcame to win the game was their largest rally of the season.
It was Colorado’s fourth consecutive loss at home, turning a oncepromising homestand into a 4-5 flop. The Rockies are just 11-16 at Coors Field.
Los Angeles won the game with three runs in the ninth inning against closer Wade Davis, who gave up two doubles, a walk, two wild pitches and a mammoth two-run homer to right by Yasmani Grandal.
“The pitches that they squared up were out over the plate,” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “The pitch to Grandal looked like a cutter that didn’t quite get to the insider corner and stayed over the middle.”
Colorado had tied the game via two Dodgers gifts in the seventh inning. Nolan Arenado singled off reliever Brock Stewart and moved to third on Stewart’s errant pickoff throw. Why Stewart was worried about Arenado running remains a mystery. With two outs, Ian Desmond hit a routine grounder to second, but Logan Forsythe booted it and Arenado scored.
Los Angeles’ three-run sixth in-
ning gave it a 7-6 lead. It was an ugly inning from the Rockies’ perspective. A two-out double by Yasiel Puig brought an end to starter Chad Bettis’ subpar day. Left-hander Chris Rusin came in and promptly walked pitch hitter Enrique Hernandez. Then Black turned to right-hander Scott Oberg, who gave up an RBI single to Forsythe. When shortstop Trevor Story uncorked a throwing error, off Breyvic Valera’s ground- the Dodgers had the advantage.
Following a recent trend, the Rockies came screaming out of the gate, putting up six runs in the first two innings to take a 6-1 lead. Then the offense pulled up lame, getting just three hits after the second inning.
Black is aware of his team’s hitting drift but said he couldn’t put his finger on the reason, adding: “I think it will turn at some point. But it does seem that later in the game, we aren’t scoring.”
In the first inning, consecutive singles by DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado gave Colorado a 1-0 lead. Desmond’s 459-foot, three-run homer to left-center made it 4-0.
Muncy’s solo homer off Bettis put the Dodgers on the board in the second, but the Rockies took advantage of Alex Wood’s wildness — three walks and a hit batter in the inning — to score two runs. The RBIs came from Story, hit by pitch, and Desmond, who drew a walk.
Bettis, who is winless at Coors Field with a 7.24 ERA, has seen better days, for sure. The Dodgers belted him for five runs on seven hits across 5M innings. Muncy’s two big swings did most of the damage vs. Bettis. Following his solo homer in the first, the L.A. first baseman ripped a three-run homer to right field in the third. The homer, coming on a cutter, put an exclamation point on Muncy’s 11-pitch at-bat.
“That was a tough at-bat,” Bettis said. “I basically felt I threw the whole kitchen sink at him and the one cutter I decided to throw, it didn’t end up where I wanted it to be. If it’s executed, obviously, it’s a different outcome, but he had a good day.”