Estevez sparks Colorado’s latest bullpen implosion
Colorado’s had the worst bullpen in baseball going back to before the all-star break, as the unit’s 6.65 ERA since July 1 ranked last in the majors heading into Saturday’s home affair against the Giants.
So it should come as no surprise that a reliever — in conjunction with an uneven start by righthander Jon Gray — sent Colorado to another loss. Saturday, it was Carlos Estevez’s turn to sink the ship, as the right-hander let in the pair of game-winning runs on two hits and two walks while not recording an out in Colorado’s 6-5 loss to San Francisco.
Estevez departed the mound in the decisive eighth inning to boos from the home faithful as Colorado squandered long balls by Trevor Story and Charlie Blackmon, not to mention the chance to clinch its first series victory in three weeks.
The Giants took the lead initially with a four-run outburst in an ugly first inning for Colorado. Gray’s walk to Mike Yastrzemski got San Francisco going; a Pablo Sandoval RBI double followed, and then Scooter Gennett’s first homer of the year made it 4-0 with two outs in the frame.
But the Colorado right-hander limited the damage from there, despite a high pitch count from the outset and traffic on the bases in every inning of his outing. After San Francisco got a pair of runners aboard to begin the fifth, manager Bud Black lifted Gray for Bryan Shaw, who induced a double play and a Gennett groundout to end the Giants’ threat.
Meanwhile, Colorado’s offense slowly got in gear against Madison Bumgarner. Colorado nicked the southpaw for a run in the second after taking advantage of center fielder Stephen Duggar’s misplay on a double by Daniel Murphy, who eventually scored on Ryan Mcmahon’s RBI groundout to make it 4-1.
Then in the third, Story blasted his 24th homer of the season. The two-run, 449-foot dinger to leftcenter cut the Giants’ lead to 4-3, and then Blackmon tied the game with a solo homer in the fifth after Shaw worked out of Gray’s jam.
Nolan Arenado followed Blackmon’s homer with a single before scoring on Murphy’s double, and Arenado’s hustle paid off when he took advantage of an errant relay throw. After sliding safely into home, Arenado popped up, twirled back to the dirt and then popped up again to roar at the lively home crowd. He beamed a wide smile that’s been hard to spot on him lately as Colorado’s faded from contention and the allstar third baseman hit a paltry .247 in the month of July.
It was that hustle play — along with Story and Blackmon’s homers — that had Colorado on track for a victory. But Estevez’s messy outing, which followed a solid four-out performance by southpaw Jake Mcgee, negated those winning vibes in Lodo.
Estevez came on with no one on and one out in the eighth but began with an ominous four-pitch walk to Joe Panik. After San Francisco eventually plated a pair of runs via Buster Posey’s double, Sam Howard got Colorado out of it by stranding the bases loaded.
Chad Bettis did the same thing in the ninth, but Will Smith closed the door on the Rockies in the bottom of the inning by striking out Murphy to end the game with the tying and winning run aboard. Colorado finished 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.