Rockies implode late in ugly loss, as Dodgers complete sweep

It was a wild, ugly game between the Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Dodgers in their series finale Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. The Rockies, losers of four straight and the Dodgers, winners of nine straight, played some Keystone Cops baseball for much of the day. In the end, the Rockies bumbled their way out of L.A., losing 12-6, after getting out to a five-run lead early on.

The Dodgers scored eight times in their final two-inning at-bats, as the Rockies’ bullpen – so superb most of the season – continued to give manager Bud Black a new shade of gray to his already silver mane. Adam Ottavino’s shoddy work in relief was the main culprit.

Rockies starter  Tyler Anderson, in his first game back from the disabled list, got into a spot of trouble with a pair of walks in the first inning. He was getting a little squeezed, especially up and in on right-handed hitters, but was able to escape the early damage that has so plagued the Rockies pitching as of late.

The Rockies staked Anderson out to a big lead soon after.  Mark Reynolds walked and then Brandon McCarthy just completely lost the handle. He started missing by feet and not inches, uncorking three straight wild pitches that easily allowed Reynolds to score and ultimately resulted in a Walk to Raimel Tapia. McCarthy made another mental mistake, failing to get to first, though some credit goes to Ian Desmond, who hustled hard to beat him there, moving Tapia to third. He scored when the attempt to cut down Desmond stealing second failed, with the baseball kicked into shallow left field. Desmond moved up on a fly to right off the bat of Pat Valaika and scored on a single through the right side from Tony Wolters to make it 3-0.

After a very quick inning with an odd ending from Anderson, requiring him to chase down Joc Pederson at third after DJ LeMahieu whiffed on a ball in shallow right, the craziness continued, but in favor of the Rockies.

LeMahieu singled to right, nothing strange about that, but then Nolan Arenado hit a hard grounder right at Enrique Hernandez who let it roll right through his legs instead of converting the 6-4-3 double play. That really came back to bite the Dodgers as LeMahieu came in to score on a single to right from Reynolds and Arenado was plated on a groundout from Tapia, giving the Rockies a 5-0 lead.

But Los Angeles came right back, getting a pair of runs on a two-run home run from Hernandez, making up for his two-run mistake a mere half-inning later. Justin Turner followed that up with a double into the pull gap and Cody Bellinger launched his 23rd home run of the season over the right field wall to pull the Dodgers to within one at 5-4.

Bellinger has been an absolute revelation for the Dodgers and for the game of baseball this season, coming out of the gate with the fastest home run rate in history. He leads the NL in home runs despite having only played 57 games at the MLB level this year.

Then things went from bad to worse for the Rockies as Anderson experienced an undisclosed (seemingly knee related) injury and had to be removed from the game in favor of Jordan Lyles. Lyles escaped the third with relative ease but things got extremely tense in the bottom of the fourth.

Pederson singled into right and was put in motion which allowed him to beat out a double play attempt on a grounder to short. Then Lyles struck out Chris Taylor, giving him an opportunity to escape the frame by getting Hernandez, who he walked on some borderline pitches bringing the .390 batting average of Justin Turner to the plate. Lyles danced around the zone with him as well, and while there were, again, a few pitches that could have gone either way, Turner wisely laid off of them drawing the walk and bringing Scott Oberg into the bases loaded situation to face phenom Bellinger. After a 23-minute-long half-inning, Oberg got Bellinger to pop up, throwing only fastballs at 97 mph or faster, and ending the frame without any damage being done, preserving the one-run lead.

Arenado hit a one-out single away from the shift to the right side and Reynolds followed with his 37th walk of the season but Tapia popped out to center, meaning the Rockies would need a two-out hit from Desmond. That’s exactly what they got, though, on a liner back up the middle to make it 6-4, Rockies.

Jake McGee came on in the bottom of the sixth, earlier than his usual spot, and pitched one of the finest innings of baseball the Rockies have seen all season. Dotting the fastball at 95-99 mph on the edges of the zone, he struck out the side, two of them looking. McGee stayed on in the seventh and K’d Hernandez before finally surrendering a single to Turner. Then Logan Forsythe jumped on a two-strike fastball to line a double to left. Black went to Ottavino and that’s when things went into the garbage bin.

Ottavino appeared to have struck out Austin Barnes, but the Rockies again didn’t get the borderline call and then the Rockies reliever spiked two pitches, allowing three runs, making it 7-6, Dodgers.

good stuff today there blue pic.twitter.com/CE3hcjX5qG

— Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious) June 25, 2017

With one out in the eighth, the Dodgers went to Kenley Jansen, suddenly smelling the sweep, and he powered through the inning with ease.

Ottavino continued to struggle in the eighth, throwing two more wild pitches that allowed two more runs. Then he allowed a two-run shot to Bellinger, his second of the game, 25th on the season. Game over, series over, early-season momentum over.

Colorado fell to 47-31 after the fifth straight loss. But, they are still eight games up in the Wild Card race. All those wins early on make days like this a little easier to process.