Gray falls apart, Rockies drop series finale to Giants

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies looked prime for the sweep of divisional foes, the San Francisco Giants, taking a big early lead for their best pitcher from a year ago.

But Jon Gray’s inconsistent 2018 campaign continued to frustrate fans on Wednesday night. He threw far too many pitches and seemed to completely fall apart in the fourth, ultimately dooming his club to a 7-4 defeat

The Rockies took a 3-0 lead before recording an out.

Charlie Blackmon and Noel Cuevas began the game with back-to-back singles and jogged home on Nolan Arenado’s 11th home run of the season. It was a monster shot deep over the wall in left and had fans salivating for the sweep early on.

The Giants struck back in the second on three consecutive one-out singles by Brandon Crawford, Mac Williamson, and Pablo Sandoval to make it a 3-2 game.

Colorado answered with a run in the bottom of the second, executing some solid small ball. Daniel Castro singled and moved to second on a sac bunt from Gray and then scored on a single up the middle from Blackmon.

But then Gray’s fourth inning happened.

It started with a one-out double by Williamson and a walk to Sandoval. On a key play, pitcher Derek Holland attempted to lay down a sac bunt that Gray got stuck on his glove and everybody was safe. His implosion was made complete by back-to-back walks to Gorkys Hernandez and Buster Posey, tying the game and requiring Harrison Musgrave to come out of the bullpen.

Musgrave was able to work out of any further damage in that inning but the Giants got to the rookie in the fifth which began unceremoniously when he plunked Brandon Belt. Evan Longoria made him pay for it by lining one into the right-center field gap for an RBI triple. He trotted home on a single from Crawford and suddenly, despite the Rockies hot start with the sticks, the visitors were on top 6-4.

Hernandez robbed the Rockies of at least one run in the bottom of the fifth, making a nice sliding catch on a sinking line drive off the bat of Carlos Gonzalez who was looking to plate Arenado and Trevor Story who each drew two-out walks.

The Giants added an insurance run in the eighth off of Jake McGee. Kelby Tomlinson ran into some good fortune, reaching on a single that deflected off McGee on the mound. He moved up on a sac bunt and came around to score on a single up the middle from Posey.

The Rockies could not score after the second inning.

Colorado fell to 30-26, 11-13 at home, but remain in first place in the NL West by two games.

Final Stats:

Jon Gray: 3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

Harrison Musgrave: 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Scott Oberg: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, K

Jake McGee: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K

Charlie Blackmon: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI

Nolan Arenado: 1-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI, HR (11)

Ian Desmond: 2-for-4

Daniel Castro: 2-for-3

Noel Cuevas: 1-for-4, 1 R

What’s Next:

After an off day, the Rockies will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game set at Coors Field, starting Friday. The first game will see a battle of lefties; Tyler Anderson and Alex Wood. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.