Rockies fall into last place after another demoralizing loss

The best thing the Colorado Rockies can say about the homestand they’ve just completed is that it’s over.

Another devastating loss, by a score of 11-8 to the Giants, concluded a four-game sweep at the hands of their divisional opponents and dropped them into last place in the NL West.

It was a brutal afternoon for starter Jon Gray who has been by far the Rockies best starter this season, especially at home. But he was dinged early and though he recovered for a while, he could not put innings away late, suffering his worst outing at Coors on the season.

Brandon Belt started things with a line drive single to right and he advanced to third on a double to center field by Austin Slater. Pablo Sandoval plated the first two runs of the game by pulling a double to right. He moved up on a ground out and scored on a single off the bat of Mike Yastrzemski before Gray was finally able to put the first inning away with a double play.

Colorado narrowly missed getting them all right back after a one-out double from Trevor Story, a walk for David Dahl, and a deep fly to left for Nolan Arenado. But the ball died on the warning track and Daniel Murphy struck out to strand them both.

They did rally for a pair in the next inning, though. Raimel Tapia led off with a swinging bunt, a rare bit of good luck that has gone the Rockies way lately. He sprinted to third on Ryan McMahon’s double to right field on a low liner. Tony Wolters got the Rockies on the board with a ground out to the right side and Gray helped the cause with a single back up the middle to make it a 3-2 ballgame.

Charlie Blackmon swung at the first pitch he saw and hit it right back to the pitcher for a 1-6-3 double play that ended the rally.

Gray walked two in the third and surrendered a one-out double in the fourth but worked out of both situations setting up the Tapia/McMahon combo to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth.

The speedy left fielder, whose walk rate on the year sits at 1.8 percent, drew a free pass to begin the frame. He speed wasn’t required thereafter as  a drive to left from McMahon easily cleared the wall for a two-run homer that put Colorado ahead 4-3.

Unfortunately, that lasted only a short while as the Giants came back with a blip and a blast. Gray got Slater to hit a weak bouncer back toward the mound that would have easily been an out had he just let it go but in trying to field the ball, it bounced off the Gray Wolf’s glove and rolled behind the mound for a single.

A grounder to second from Sandoval looked like it might erase that play but it pulled McMahon just a bit too far to his left and he only had time to get the lead runner. That meant that a laser line drive home run to right for Stephen Vogt gave the advantage back to the Giants at 5-4.

Colorado countered and tied it thanks to a leadoff triple into the left field gap and a soft single to center from Arenado.

Another short-lived respite was over when Donovan Solano opened the sixth with a solo home run to left and the Giants regained the lead.

Another base hit for Belt and a walk to Slater ran Gray from the game and brought in Bryan Shaw. The cutter specialist got a pair of groundball outs to escape any further damage.

Carlos Estévez entered the game in the seventh and got a pair of quick outs before giving up back-to-back line drive singles to Panik and Solano. He then induced a grounder toward short but on a tough chance, Story bobbled the ball and the runner beat the throw to second as a run scored and the inning continued.

Belt poured a little more gas on the fire by adding another run on a single to right before Estévez struck out Slater to put the inning away but not before the Giants had taken an 8-5 lead.

Chad Bettis gave up three more runs and the Rockies made a late rally featuring another ninth-inning home run from Story to make it 11-8 but it all felt like an afterthought at that point.

The Rockies get away from their home park and are off to see some familiar faces in New York with a three-game set against the Yankees.