Astros obliterate Rockies to cap sweep against sacrificial Lambert
HOUSTON» The litmus test came back at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday. The results were about as ugly as the Rockies’ season.
The Rockies are nowhere near the same stratosphere as the Astros, World Series front-runners who thumped them 14-3 for a twogame series sweep. And, as manager Bud Black explained, righthanded rookie pitcher Peter Lambert — for all his potential — is experiencing major growing pains “right before our eyes.”
“It’s all a learning curve, and every game you’re going out there and learning more,” said Lambert, roughed up for nine earned runs on seven hits in three-plus innings. “Today, I learned a lot.”
Those were the two main conclusions to be drawn Wednesday, when last-place Colorado turned in the latest in a string of poor performances. Besides a couple of solo home runs, the Rockies did basically nothing on offense.
Houston’s deep lineup,
meanwhile, ripped Lambert and the bullpen.
Trevor Story gave Colorado a 1-0 lead in the first with home run No. 26 but Houston’s Gerrit Cole — undefeated in his past 14 starts — settled in after that for six innings of two-run ball.
Meanwhile, Jose Altuve wasted no time getting to Lambert, taking the right-hander’s first pitch of the game — a belt-high fastball — into the left field seats to tie the game 1-1. It was 4-1 by the end of the frame following Yuli Gurriel’s two-out, three-run homer. The first baseman was en route to a franchise high-tying eight RBIs.
Houston nicked Lambert for another run in the third on Gurriel’s sacrifice fly, making it 5-1. Colorado responded with Nolan Arenado’s 25th homer of the season in the next inning, a solo shot to leftcenter, but it was all Astros from there.
“We squared a couple pitches up — Trevor hit a breaking ball, Nolan got to a fastball, and there were some decent at-bats earlier in the game,” Black said. “(Cole) went six and threw over 100 pitches, so we tested him a little bit, but we really couldn’t get anything going.”
Lambert didn’t make it out of the fourth. The Astros went walk, single, walk, RBI single to chase him from the game; Jesus Tinoco came on and walked in a run in addition to giving up a three-run double to Gurriel. By the end of the snowball inning, it was 10-2 Houston.
“I’ve just got to evaluate (this outing),” Lambert said. “And if it’s a bad one like this, I have to leave it in the past and go get them the next time.”
Three runs off southpaw Sam Howard in the seventh made it 14-2, marking the most runs the Rockies have ever allowed at Minute Maid Park since it opened in 2000. Colorado couldn’t do anything against Houston relievers Joe Biagini and Collin McHugh.
“The big deficit is not an excuse,” Yonder Alonso said. “We still have to go out there and put quality at-bats together and hit the ball hard for all nine innings.”
Colorado’s three rookie pitchers combined to issue nine walks, with Lambert accounting for four.
“Those were rookie pitchers trying to maybe do a little bit too much or be a little bit too fine,” Black said. “The result of that was nine walks … They’ll soon learn walks will always come back tohauntyou.”
Added Lambert: “Going up against a team like that, you’ve got to get ahead. You can’t allow free baserunners. I was kind of nibbling at the corners and I wasn’t commanding my fastball well today.”
The Rockies (52-62) now head to San Diego for a four-game series.