The Colorado Rockies dropped yet another rubber match—putting their record in such contests at 3-13 this season—in their series finale against the St. Louis Cardinals. After a solid win last night, the Rockies were looking to win their second series of the second half. However, lack of clutch pitching and hitting kept that goal out of reach.
Lorenzen labors
Right-handed starter Michael Lorenzen—riding a string of difficult starts—wasn’t at his best today. Lorenzen yielded four runs—only two of which were earned—and
was fortunate to have not given up more. The veteran pitcher gave up eight hits and three walks while only striking out one batter.
Lorenzen gave up a walk and two singles in the first inning to let the Cardinals get on the board. He gave up another two runs in the third inning, but both were considered unearned due to a fielding error by Willi Castro. The third would be the most difficult inning for Lorenzen. After giving up a leadoff single to Iván Herrera—who reached second due to the aforementioned fielding error—he gave up a walk, back-to-back flyouts to advance and score a runner, and a double.
“He was inefficient with his pitches, not a ton of command with the fastball,” concluded manager Warren Schaeffer after the game. Lorenzen had thrown 85 pitches going into the fifth inning.
Lorenzen started the fifth inning with his first pitch—a middle-middle sinker—getting taken deep on a no-doubt home run by Alec Burleson, followed by a single. He did record an out in the fifth, but after that his afternoon was over and Tanner Gordon was called into relief duty.
Bullpen bends, finally breaks
Tanner Gordon pitched admirably for most of his 3.1 innings of relief work this afternoon. He started his outing by inducing an inning-ending double play in the fifth to keep the Cardinals from pulling further ahead, and spent most of the rest of the afternoon keeping the game tied and the Rockies within striking distance. Gordon pitched a clean, 1-2-3 sixth inning and a scoreless seventh despite giving up two singles.
Unfortunately, things began to fall apart in the eighth inning. Gordon gave up back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt to put runners in scoring position with one out. After a three pitch strikeout using only changeups to record the second out of the inning, it looked like the Rockies might escape unscathed.
The Rockies then turned to the left-handed Parker Mushinski to end the inning. Unfortunately, Mushinski gave up a bases clearing double to Cardinals rookie JJ Wetherholt. Wetherholt then reached third on what was ruled a fielding error by Rockies center fielder Cole Carrigg. A single by Iván Herrera—his fourth hit of the game—would drive in the third run of the inning before the bleeding could be stopped.
Offense unable to take advantage of ten hits, two home runs
Much like their first game of the series, the Rockies were unable to take advantage of relatively plentiful baserunners. The Rockies had ten hits and drew three walks this afternoon while only striking out five times. However, six of those hits were singles and the Rockies went 3-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
Jake McCarthy had another solid day at the plate, going 2-for-5 with a leadoff double in the first inning. He came home as the Rockies’ first run of the day on a Hunter Goodman single.
The Rockies would not score again until the sixth inning. Willi Castro sharply doubled with two outs and was driven home by Brett Sullivan when the latter hit his fifth home run of the season.
Hunter Goodman led off the top of the eighth inning with a home run of his own—his 34th of the season. Mickey Moniak followed up with a single and Brett Sullivan drew a walk, but the Rockies were unable to pull ahead and entered the bottom of the eighth with a short-lived tie game.
Unfortunately, the Rockies went down quietly in the ninth after the Cardinals pulled ahead. With two outs it looked like TJ Rumfield might have been able to keep the inning alive, but a great catch by Cardinals left fielder Everson Pereira ended both the Rockies’ hopes and the ballgame.
Coming Up Next
The Rockies are headed to the desert for a three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Right-handed rookie Gabriel Hughes will have the start tomorrow against a yet-to-be-announced Diamondbacks pitcher. First pitch is scheduled for 7:40 PM MDT.
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