Rockies downward spiral continues in noncompetitive loss to Yankees

It was a new day but the same old story for the Colorado Rockies on Friday in their first of three against the New York Yankees.

Vibes felt good for the visitors early on when they took a 2-0 lead but the pitching let them down once again and that early advantage felt like a distant memory by the time the 8-2 loss was complete.

Colorado had taken the two-run lead in the second with a solo home run from Ryan McMahon and hits by Chris Iannetta and Garrett Hampson, but  the game moved dramatically back in favor of the Yankees with one swing.

Starter Kyle Freeland was good early on, producing weak grounders and even striking out four batters in a row before things fell apart.

Former members of the Rockies haunted their old team all night and it began with one out in the third when DJ LeMahieu got a rally started with a one-out jam shot single. Freeland lost his command for a moment and walked a pair to load the bases and worked ahead of Edwin Encarnacion 1-2.

He missed his spot on the next pitch and Encarnacion blasted it to left for a grand slam and his 29th home run of the season.

From there, the Rockies offense fell silent, including getting struck out in order by old friend Adam Ottavino.

And the Yankees just kept scoring, with LeMahieu involved in each rally with another base hit and a sacrifice. Even Mike Tauchman got in on the action with a three-hit, two-run day.

Yency Almonte gave up three runs on four hits over two innings of work and the duo of Jake McGee and Jairo Díaz managed to be bright spots for the bullpen with solid innings of work late.

The Rockies did collect nine hits in the game, and it could easily be argued that if Freeland simply executes on one pitch and gets a groundball instead of a flyball into the seats in the third, this game would have been very different.

But as it worked out, it was another lopsided loss in which the Colorado Rockies looked clearly overmatched and defeated.

A few more games like this and the season may be beyond salvaging, turning the GM’s eyes toward the seller’s market.

Colorado drops to 46-51 and stays tied with the San Diego Padres for last place in the NL West.