Rockies (likely) fall out of first place with lackluster performance against Mariners

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies continue to show their warts at home, losing their second straight to the Seattle Mariners in a fairly non-competitive affair. The 10-4 loss will drop them out of first place in the NL West, a half-game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers if the score in that game holds.

It was an ugly night for Rockies starter Tyler Anderson who looked fantastic in his last four outings but was roughed up in a bad way by the Mariners offense.

Kyle Seager started the scoring in the second with a laser-beam, line-drive home run over the tall fence in right field, a two-run shot that gave Seattle the early lead. Then after Anderson walked Guillermo Heredia, Mike Zunino smashed a double to left to make it 3-0.

Anderson worked out of that jam but created another one in the very next inning. He just couldn’t miss any bats. Robinson Cano lined a single the other way before Ben Gamel and Seager hit back-to-back doubles off the right-field scoreboard to make it 5-0. Heredia added a single to put the Mariners up by six. The Rockies had not yet recorded a hit.

Trevor Story put a stop to that in the bottom of the third with a double but it wouldn’t be until the fifth that Colorado finally got some runs on the board. Carlos Gonzalez started the inning with an opposite-field double but Story and Ryan Hanigan went down in order, and it looked like CarGo may be stranded there.

Pat Valaika came in to pinch-hit for Anderson and worked a long at-bat that eventually ended in a walk. Charlie Blackmon, the reigning NL Player of the Week, did the same to bring DJ LeMahieu to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded. He inside-outed a fastball barreling in on his hands and slapped it to right field (classic DJ) to score a pair, making it 6-2, Seattle.

In the top of the seventh, Mike Dunn gave up a home run to Robinson Cano that hasn’t landed yet, followed by a triple to Gamel who was thrown out after two reviews in one play revealed that LeMahieu got him and determined that Ryan Hanigan did not block the plate.

Story led off the bottom of the seventh with a single which brought his batting average over the “Mendoza Line” now at .201.

Blackmon led off the bottom of the eighth with his eighth triple of the season. He now has double the number of triples as the guys tied for second place in MLB. He came in to score on a groundout from LeMahieu who had three of four of the Rockies RBI in the game. A walk to Mark Reynolds and a swinging bunt hit from Ian Desmond brought Carlos Gonzalez to the plate with a chance to make it a one-run game, but he grounded out to short, ending the threat.

Carlos Estevez made his first appearance in the ninth after being called up today to replace the injured Adam Ottavino and he was greeted by three straight singles. He managed to strike out Mike Zunino and got up on Jarrod Dyson 0-2 but ultimately allowed a two-RBI single through the left side of the infield, the third groundball single of the inning, to make it 9-3. Pinch-hitter Taylor Motter added a fourth single to make it 10-3 before Estevez could get Jean Segura to line into an inning-ending double play.

The Rockies got a mostly meaningless run on a groundout from Gerardo Parra, scoring Story who had walked, making the final score 10-4.

With this loss and a Dodgers win over the Cardinals, the Rockies will have fallen out of first place in the NL West after being in that position for 43 days of the season. They are, however, still tied for the most wins not just in the West but in the National League.