Bullpen blows another one, Rockies drop winnable game to Astros

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It was a battle of All-Star heavy lineups between the Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros on a simmering summer night at Coors Field.

And the offenses were even hotter than the weather.

Unfortunately for the purplers, the Astros bullpen was lights out and the Rockies continues to be shaky, blowing another game late after the bats did so much work to take the lead.

We also saw another rough night for starter German Marquez who couldn’t keep the ball down often enough to outpitch the debuting Jose Urquidy.

Marquez coughed up a run in the first on his own throwing error, attempting to pickoff George Springer who singled on a grounder up the middle to start the game.

He trotted home on a sac fly from Alex Bregman to make it 1-0

The Rockies answered with a run of their own thanks to a good-fortune double for David Dahl who hit one off the end of the bat but away from the shift on the left side. He scored with ease when Nolan Arenado scorched one off the wall in right-center for another double.

Yuli Gurriel gave Houston the lead right back with a solo home run left and the Rockies tied it again on singles from Ian Desmond and Ryan McMahon followed by a wild pitch.

But the Astros just kept plugging away, throwing up three runs in the third with some good approaches and some good luck.

Springer started it with a sinking liner into right field. The ball was not well struck but it was intentionally placed as he went with the breaking pitch away from him. Jose Altuve, however, did not produce a good swing, breaking his bat but he was rewarded with a flare single to left.

After Bregman flew out, Marquez was a double play ball away from escaping but Michael Brantley hit a liner to center for a double, scoring both runners.

The third came in on the second broken-bat hit of the inning, a groundball double just over the first base bag by Gurriel which gave the Astros a 5-2 lead.

The Rockies missed a golden opportunity to get back in it in the fourth, failing to score after getting two aboard with nobody out.

But they had no such issue in the fifth, getting a five-run counterpunch from their All-Star laden lineup.

Trevor Story, in his first game back off the IL, struck out in his first two at-bats but got the rally started in the fifth with a single through the right side. Dahl followed with another on a line drive to center. Arenado walked on four pitches and Daniel Murphy walked on five to bring in a run.

That’s when Desmond delivered the big blow, waiting for a fastball out away from him and driving it into the right-field corner for a two-run double that tied the game.

Still with nobody out, Colorado was able to take the lead thanks to some productive grounders from Ryan McMahon and Tony Wolters to make it 7-5 in favor of the home team.

They added another in the sixth but missed another great chance for more. The bases were loaded on three straight singles from Blackmon, Story, and Dahl. Arenado produced a swinging bunt that Bregman tried to come home with but the throw pulled the catcher off the plate and Blackmon slid in safe to make it 8-5. But with the bases loaded and nobody out, Murphy hit one back to the mound for a 1-2-3 double play and Desmond made his first out of the game on a grounder to first to end the inning with just the one run scored.

That really stung after what happened next.

Back came the Astros against reliever Bryan Shaw in the seventh. Springer hammered one into the oppo gap before Altuve took one off the ground out away from him and somehow managed a bloop double. Bregman put another one in the gap to run Shaw from the game without having recorded an out.

Bud Black went to Jake McGee who got a lefty in Brantley to ground out to second but they elected to pitch to the hot-hitting Gurriel and got burned on a two-run homer to left that put Houston on top 9-8.

Colorado managed only one hit after Arenado’s swinging bunt in the sixth, getting shut down by the Astros ‘pen to take the tough loss and drop their record to 44-41.