Colorado collapses against late onslaught from Astros

In the top of the seventh of the third contest in a four-game set between the Colorado Rockies and the Huston Astros, the home club turned to 28-year-old rookie Ashton Goudeau to make his MLB debut.

This was because the game was already spiraling out of their control and Bud Black had almost no other option. Goudeau threw the first pitch of his career at the highest level, a curveball low and away in a great location. Carlos Correa offered a weak swing and shattered his bat but the ball floated into left field, scoring a pair of inherited runners in a perfect symbol for how things have been going for Colorado lately.

Make no mistake, though, the Rockies got throttled in this 13-6 loss for a myriad of reasons including some bad mistake pitches and another putrid performance from the offense.

There was no questionable umpiring or sterling performance on the mound to point to either. They missed hittable pitches, often swung early in counts at stuff out of the zone, and generally looked undisciplined and completely out of rhythm.

Nolan Arenado, in particular, continues to struggle, going 0-for-3 to lower his average on the season to .225.

Moment of the Game: Hoff gets Hassled

It was still a close game at 3-1 in the sixth and if not for a leadoff single that glanced off the glove of a sliding Chris Owings at first Ryan Castellani might have recorded the first quality start of his career.

He managed to get a pair of outs before giving up a single up the middle to Correa. Having allowed two runs the inning before mostly on a couple of hanging breaking balls, Bud Black decided that Castellani was running out of gas and went to Jeff Hoffman who has been fantastic all year for the Rox.

Hoffman threw a high fastball to lefty Kyle Tucker that was actually well above the zone but somehow he got on top of it and drove it into the left-center field gap for his second triple of the game. Taylor Jones singled him in to make it 6-1 and the route was on.

The Astros poured on another seven runs against the Rockies bullpen to make a mild comeback attempt irrelevant.

What’s Next

The Rockies will try to salvage a game in the set on Thursday afternoon. German Marquez will face off against Christian Javier. First pitch at 1:10.