The Colorado Rockies were unable to replicate their offensive production from Wednesday, but the major concern from their 7-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates lies with a concerning injury to their most promising starting pitcher. The Rockies finish the road trip with a 2-4 record and two series losses.
Danger for Dollander?
The Rockies hoped for another strong outing from Chase Dollander, especially three games into a schedule of playing 16-games straight. Unfortunately, the fireball righty departed in the top of the second
with an apparent injury.
The day didn’t start well as Oneil Cruz kicked things off with a double in the top of the first inning that dropped because of a miscommunication between Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle. Cruz then scored on a single from Bryan Reynolds to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead. The next batter, Ryan O’Hearn, belted a two-run home run to center field, making it 3-0 with one out. Dollander managed to escape the inning with a couple of pop-ups, but lasted just two batters the following inning after giving up a double to Endy Rodriguez and walking Jared Triolo. Dollander shook his arm after walking Triolo, and out of caution, Warren Schaeffer pulled him from the game, turning the day into a bullpen affair.
It was later announced that Dollander departed with right forearm tightness and will undergo some more testing in Denver.
Early Game Bullpen Brigade
Brennan Bernardio replaced Dollander in the second with two on and nobody out and managed to quickly record three outs to escape the inning. Bernardino started the third inning, giving up back-to-back singles and inducing a weak groundout in front of the plate for the first out of the inning.
Victor Vodnik then entered the game and walked Marcell Ozuna to load the bases. Rodriguez followed up with a two-run single to center field to extend the Pirates’ lead 5-0. Cruz later drove in another run on a groundout to short to make it 6-0 before Vodnik struck out Brandon Lowe to end the inning.
Between Dollander and the two relievers, the Pirates were quite effective in putting the ball in play, and it threatened to place a heavy burden on the bullpen, but the Rockies were able to get length out of Tanner Gordon to survive the day.
Go-Go Gadget Gordon
It’s been a crazy couple of days for Gordon after he was optioned back to Albuquerque on Tuesday and had to turn around and quickly return to Pittsburgh after Jimmy Herget was placed on the injured list. With the transition to a bullpen game, it became clear that Gordon was going to have to eat some innings, and he delivered on the day.
Gordon ended up tossing four innings, allowing just one run on three hits while striking out five batters and allowing one walk. He threw 69 pitches, 47 for strikes, inducing two groundouts and four flyouts. Calm and composed, Gordon worked through the seventh, giving way to Juan Mejia in the eighth. Given the circumstances that arose for the game, Gordon lifted a potentially great burden from the shoulders of the Rockies’ pen.
Steel City Blues
The Rockies’ offense wasn’t able to get much of anything done at the plate. They managed to score two runs on just five hits while striking out seven times. They did manage four walks, but they were unable to string together hits like they had done Wednesday night.
The runs came in the fourth inning after TJ Rumfield and Willi Castro managed to draw back-to-back one-out walks against bulk reliever Carmen Mlodzinski. Troy Johnston then managed a two-out, two-run double to get the Rockies on the board, trailing 6-2 at the time.
Still, some promising things are happening for the Rockies’ offense. Rumfield continues to impress as he drew a pair of walks, Johnston remains very clutch with runners in scoring position, and Ezequiel Tovar is slowly coming along with some excellent at-bats.
The Pirates exemplified what the Rockies are trying to do contact-wise on offense, as they totaled 12 hits with four players collecting two or more.
Up Next
The Rockies head back home to welcome Nolan Arenado and the Arizona Diamondbacks to town. Kyle Freeland (1-4, 6.00 ERA) looks to rebound from a couple of rough starts. He will face off against Merrill Kelly (2-3, 7.62 ERA) who has also had a rough go of it to start the season.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 pm MDT.
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