Bettis' beauty wasted, Rox drop series in Miami

The Colorado Rockies, as seems to be the case every year, can’t get out of Miami soon enough.

Losing two games and two players, made official by Sunday afternoon’s 2-0 clunker, somehow this trip to South Beach was actually above par for the Rockies recent history.

Not only was the RBI double from relief pitcher Antonio Senzatela on Friday the only run-scoring hit the Rockies would get that game… it was the only one of only two they recorded all series.

A two-out single to right off the bat of Lewis Brinson in the second inning was really all the scoring that was required for the Marlins.

Though, they did add one on Miguel Rojas’ fourth home run of the season, coming in the bottom of the fourth.

They plated a third on a sac fly from Starlin Castro against Bryan Shaw who loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a single in the eighth. The sac fly was the only run he would give up.

Colorado got another great start out of Chad Bettis who only gave up four hits and two runs over his seven innings. That will aid in keeping the bullpen fresh for the rest of the road trip but was rendered moot by the offensive woes in this one.

The Rockies tallied just four singles in the game. Ian Desmond, who singled in the first, was the only Rockie to reach base twice and the only player to draw a walk. They struck out 14 times.

It will be easy to lump this in with projected and visible offensive woes early in the season but one needn’t look farther than the performance of Nolan Arenado, who didn’t get a hit in the series until the ninth inning of the final game—and that was a single to right field—and then a little bit of history to see that this was utterly predictable.

Losing DJ LeMahieu, who has been one of the club’s best hitters, just a few innings into the series certainly didn’t help matters.

Colorado heads to Chicago where they have historically played much better. If they continue to show a listless offense, it may be time to start looking at shaking some things up.

Final Stats:

Chad Bettis: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Ian Desmond: 1-for-3, BB, K

David Dahl: 0-for-3, 3 K

Caleb Smith: 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K

What’s Next:

The Rockies are off to Chicago to look for some revenge after dropping a recent home series to the Cubs. It’ll be a battle of lefties as Kyle Freeland looks to follow up his best start of the season against veteran Jon Lester. First pitch is at 5:05 Mountain Time.