Rockies free fall continues in four-game sweep by Bucs

DENVER – It was a series to forget for the Colorado Rockies.

A 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon capped off a four-game sweep that drops the club to the second-worst record in the National League.

The Rockies offense had no answer for former Regis University and current Pirates southpaw Steven Brault, collecting one base hit against him through the first five innings.

Meanwhile, it looked like it was going to be another long and brutal afternoon for right-handed starter Jeff Hoffman who gave up a no-doubt, second-deck blast to Adam Frazier on the very first pitch of the game.

Hoffman went on to allow another couple of baserunners, but he escaped the first inning jam and went on to pitch a pretty solid game, minimizing the damage of nine hits during his five innings.

There was very little action on either side during the early going until Pittsburgh added a run in the fifth on a series of singles from Bryan Reynolds, Starling Marte, and Josh Bell. Hoffman got Colin Moran to ground into an inning-ending double play on his final pitch in the contest, a stark contrast to the result from his first.

Colorado finally got on the board in the bottom of the sixth when Nolan Arenado turned on a center-cut fastball, obliterating it to left field. The only question was whether or not the line drive would be high enough to clear the wall. It was and Arenado notched his 35th home run of the season.

The Pirates answered immediately in the top of the seventh against reliever Jesus Tinoco when Brault continued his fantastic afternoon. Batting .303 on the season, he continued his productive season at the plate by smashing one way over the wall in right-center field for the first home run of his career.

A single from Frazier, a walk to Marte, and an awkward play that saw Tinoco get in the way of Ryan McMahon at first base – allowing a run to score rather than a double play to be completed – made it a 4-1 game.

The Rockies missed their best chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh. McMahon singled and Garrett Hampson reached on a fielding error to put the first two runners aboard. Pat Valaika, in his first game up from Triple-A, struck out before Tony Wolters was able to come through with an RBI single.

With runners at the corners and one away, pinch-hitter Daniel Murphy sent one back to the mound and Hampson was thrown out trying to reach the plate. Trevor Story was frozen by a 3-2 slider that came back over the top of the strikezone to end the inning and leave the potential tying runs on the bases.

The Pirates plated two more in the ninth to take the wind out of the sails of any potential comeback for Colorado.