Key mistakes cost Rockies another close one

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The Colorado Rockies finally got to the pitching that they needed, the key defensive mistake and some poorly timed bad execution on offense led to their second straight defeat at the hands of the Houston Astros.

Starters Peter Lambert and Wade Miley both started a bit rough before finding the rhythm and the Rockies left the latter off the hook.

The game scoring picked right back up where the two teams left off the day before.

Alex Bregman turned on an inside fastball from Lambert and hit a laser to left for a solo home run, his 23rd round-tripper of the season.

The Rockies tied it up in the bottom half but a potentially huge inning lingered just out of their reach.

Miley was incredibly wild, opening the game with back-to-back walks of Charlie Blackmon and Trevor Story, the latter coming on four pitches. He then threw three straight out of the zone to Nolan Arenado.

But the perennial All-Star did the ailing pitcher a favor by hacking at the 3-0 pitch and popping it up on the infield. David Dahl popped up on the left side on the next pitch and suddenly Miley was one more from escape.

Ian Desmond came through, though, tying the game with a ground ball single up the middle.

Just as he did in the first game, Yuli Gurriel made sure to put the ‘Stros immediately back in front with a solo blast to left-center on a hung breaking ball.

This time the Rockies did not answer and the Astros took advantage of a miscue in center by Desmond to add two more in the third.

Lambert walked Bregman with two away and left a pitch up to Michael Brantley who hit it hard toward Desi who completely misjudged a ball with 99 percent catch probability that got over his head for a two-run double.

The game settled down after that as Lambert and Miley finished strong and Chad Bettis came on to allow just one baserunner in the sixth and seventh.

Colorado was finally able to get a run back in the bottom of the seventh on a leadoff double from Ryan McMahon and a one-out single through the shift from Blackmon.

But Colorado could not mount any more offense, suffering the 4-2 loss and mini sweep.