The Colorado Rockies kicked off a nine-game road trip tonight with the first of a three-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals. In the first matchup of the series, the Rockies and Cardinals found themselves in a one-run battle for most of the game.
While the Rockies out-hit the Cardinals by a wide margin and got productive outings from starter Ryan Feltner and the bullpen, they unfortunately struggled to get runners across and dropped game one because of that. Double plays and runners left on were
the story of this game.
Small ball to start the night
A little action in the first inning wasn’t enough to change the numbers on the scoreboard. Despite a leadoff double from Jake McCarthy, the Rockies couldn’t get anything more going. Leahy struck out the side to close out the inning. The Cards went down just as easily, with Alec Burleson’s walk representing their only baserunner of the inning.
The action warmed up a bit in the second inning. TJ Rumfield and Willi Castro kicked things off with a single each, putting runners on the corners. The baserunners set up Troy Johnston to give the Rockies an early lead, as Johnston’s groundout to the shortstop scored Rumfield.
The 1-0 lead didn’t last long. The Cards responded quickly with hits of their own. Jimmy Crooks singled, followed by a Mason Wynn double. A Nathan Church sacrifice fly tied the game at one all, scoring Crooks. With Wynn on third, Bryan Torres sent another sac fly to left field to give St. Louis an early 2-1 lead.
Double plays and other problems settle in
The Rockies lost this one because of their inability to advance runners and because they halted their momentum in key opportunities. Those issues started early. To kick off the third inning, McCarthy managed a single. Cole Carrigg followed that up by grounding into a double play.
The Cardinals added another run in the third. Iván Herrera tagged a solo shot to left field to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead. That small two-run lead would sadly prove to be insurmountable for tonight’s Rockies offense.
Feltner would go on to talk about that homerun in his postgame comments. He noted it as a pitch that got away from him. “I threw him a sweeper the pitch before. Then I threw him a worse one the next pitch. Just threw him a worse version of the same pitch and he put a good swing on it.”
The Rockies looked like they might get back in it in the fourth inning. Rumfield singled to start it off and was moved to third by a Castro double. With runners on second and third and nobody out, the Rockies didn’t get as much production as the opportunity presented.
Ezequiel Tovar struck out before another Johnston groundout RBI brought the game to 3-2. That’s all Colorado would muster, as Edouard Julien grounded out to conclude the push.
Pitching does its job
Aside from some early traffic and the home run that got away, Feltner had another solid outing. He finished after 5.1 IP, surrendering three earned runs on just four hits, with three walks and two strikeouts. While his mistakes did put the Rockies behind early by a small margin, the starting performance is one that felt like it could have resulted in a win if it was paired with just a little more run support.
Warren Schaeffer echoed that sentiment in his presser, noting that “Felt was really good today. Just one mistake to Herrera on the hanging sweeper. Other than that, I thought he mixed well, he kept guys off balance, got us into the sixth inning and definitely gave us a chance to win.”
As he has in recent games, Feltner used a wide mix of pitches to his advantage, pulling out his four-seamer (29%), changeup (22%), sinker (15%), slider and curveball (14% each), and sweeper (5%). Feltner primarily used his four-seamer early (40% of pitches his first time through the order) before going to that wider arsenal.
Much to the Rockies’ dismay, starting pitching got the job done for the other side as well. Leahy allowed a fair amount of contact, giving up eight hits. He also found a way to limit any damage, giving up just two runs along with eight strikeouts in his five innings of work.
Colorado’s bullpen kept things competitive as the early 3-2 score held the rest of the way. Brennan Bernardino, Jimmy Herget, and Nick Frasso all were solid in relief. None of the three allowed a hit, and they combined for five strikeouts across 2.2 innings. Schaeffer praised Frasso in particular after the game, celebrating a “big inning for him. That was great. Get his first big league punchout ever? I thought he looked great. He’s got nasty stuff. Good slider, good changeup, crossbody. High velo.”
A late-inning push is all for not
With nothing doing through most of the game, the Rockies turned to their bench for a spark. In the top of the seventh, Kyle Karros pinch hit for Troy Johnston (o-for-2 with two RBI) and Jordan Beck replaced Edouard Julien (0-for-2 with a strikeout). Karros flied out and Beck singled, but McCarthy and Carrigg would go down swinging to end the inning.
With Karros and Beck subbing in defensively, the Rockies would again look to their bench in the eighth inning, replacing Mickey Moniak with Tyler Freeman as a pinch hitter and later replacing Rumfield with Brett Sullivan as a pinch runner.
The ninth inning ended the game in a way that was emblematic of the whole performance. Tovar drew a walk to start the inning (Colorado’s first of the game), but Karros hit into a double play before Beck grounded out harmlessly to shortstop.
When all was said and done, the Rockies notched 10 hits to the Cardinals’ four. But the Rockies left seven runners on base and were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. The hitting was working, just not quite enough when it mattered.
Up Next
It’ll be a southpaw battle in St. Louis on Saturday night.
Riding the high of a complete game gem, Kyle Freeland is set to start for the Rockies. Freeland is 3-10 in 20 starts this year with a 6.81 ERA and 93 strikeouts. His last outing was his best of the season, as he went the distance and gave up just one run with eight strikeouts in an 8-1 win.
Matthew Liberatore will start for St. Lous, bringing in a 5-8 record in 22 starts with a 4.97 ERA and a 1.491 WHIP. He looked sharp in his last outing, going six innings and giving up zero runs and one hit, but failing to get the decision as the Cardinals scored four late in a 5-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.
First pitch is set for 5:15 pm MDT.
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