Altanta blasts lefty Gomber, cruises past Colorado in series opener
Prior to Thursday’s series opener against the Braves, Rockies manager Bud Black acknowledged the team’s poor pitching is the primary reason for Colorado’s freefall over the past month.
“We’ve can’t have the variability of what’s going on with our pitching because it makes it too hard to win,” Black said. “We have to do a better job.”
But it was hard again on Thursday, no one did a better job and the free-fall continued.
Southpaw starter Austin Gomber was roughed up for nine runs in five innings, including two home runs to Travis d’arnaud and the bullpen didn’t fare much better in a 13-6 loss at Coors Field.
“(Turning this around) is going to be extremely key moving forward, and having consistent performances from the rotation,” Black said after the loss. “Recently (Ryan) Feltner was good (in the homestand opener against Miami), Chad Kuhl threw a good game in Washington.
“But we just haven’t had it, and the last couple starts here have been rough… It comes down to making pitches, and if you don’t, the opposition is going to hand it to you.”
The Rockies needed just three pitches to take the lead when Connor Joe doubled and then Charlie Blackmon singled off right-hander Ian Anderson in the first inning. But it was all Braves from there.
Guillermo Heredia’s RBI triple tied the game in the second, then Atlanta tacked on two more unearned runs in the frame after a throwing error by second baseman Brendan Rodgers. Colorado is last in the majors with 42 errors this year.
D’arnaud then turned Gomber’s day from mediocre to terrible practically all by himself. The Braves catcher had a two-out, tworun homer to left in the third inning on a first-pitch changeup, then cranked a grand slam to left off a first-pitch curveball in the fifth inning to stretch the visitors’ lead to 9-1.
“Those were two offspeed pitches that just didn’t quite get to the spot, and the curveball didn’t have the snap at the end of it,” Black said.
Gomber’s now turned in two dud outings in a row, as he was tagged for eight runs in 1L innings on Saturday at Nationals Park.
“There were too many mistakes over the middle of the plate tonight,” Gomber said. “It wasn’t just one pitch — it was a theme all day… Every time I made a mistake tonight, they didn’t miss it. It’s frustrating, because the last two times out I haven’t pitched how I’m capable of pitching and I’m not giving us a chance to win.”
In the fifth, Blackmon had an RBI single and C.J. Cron hit his 14th homer, making it 9-4. The Braves tacked on four runs on seven hits across three runnings against lefthander Ty Blach as their offense kept humming.
“They’re the world champions, and they showed it tonight,” Black said.
Colorado, in last place in the National League West, started the season 16-11 but has lost 17 of its last 23 games. The Rockies pitchers have a 6.29 ERA over that time frame.
The biggest ovation in the game came in the eighth inning when the Avalanche’s winning score flashed on the big screen. That was just before Jose Iglesias collided with Rodgers as both attempted to field a chopped ground ball off the bat of Ronald Acuna Jr. The hit was ruled a single, and epitomized the ugly brand of baseball Colorado has been playing for several weeks.
Both players were OK following the collision.