Rockies lose tough one late with some controversy

The Colorado Rockies lost 3-2 on a walk-off sac fly despite staging a late comeback. It was a gut-punch of a loss after the team put themselves into position to win even though they didn’t play a good game.

Starter Jon Gray was tagged for two runs on one swing in the first but beyond that was pretty spectacular as was the bullpen, but the offense struggled for the second straight game against starter Lance Lynn and by the time they got going it was too little, too late.

Harrison Bader, in his MLB debut, was gifted an extra strike in the ninth against Jake McGee after he should have been rung up looking and lined a double to left, moved to third on a sac bunt and came in to score the winning run on a sac fly off the bat of Jedd Gyorko. The throw from Carlos Gonzalez was well ahead of the runner but short-hopped home plate and was poorly handled poorly at the plate by catcher Ryan Hanigan, so Bader scored relatively easily.

Here is the pitch in question:

Call hurts #Rockies
Ball 1 should be strike 3
Bot 9 McGee vs Bader
4% call same
4.4in from edge pic.twitter.com/rVoW6C7Uvr

— Rockies Strike Zone (@RockiesUmp) July 26, 2017

Considering the Cardinals didn’t record another hit after the guy who scored the winning run would have been called out if automated strike zones were in use, it’s tough to argue using the available technology wouldn’t make the game fairer.

Trevor Story greeted Matt Bowman with a golf shot home run in the eighth to tie the game at two. It was Story’s 14th home run of the season. Story is batting .333/.400/.639 with three home runs and 12 RBI since the All-Star break.

Bowman responded by plunking Ryan Hanigan who was bunted over to second by Pat Valaika but an incredible diving catch from Kolten Wong robbed Charlie Blackmon of the go-ahead single and DJ LeMahieu struck out to end the inning.

The Rockies finally got on the board in the seventh against lefty reliever Kevin Siegrist. DJ LeMahieu walked and Nolan Arenado sliced a double down the left field line before Gerardo Parra delivered the productive out with a sac fly to center to make it 2-1. Mark Reynolds followed with a walk and Colorado was still threatening with two on and just one out but Carlos Gonzalez grounded into the rally-killing, inning-ending double play. The Arenado double was just the third hit of the game for the Rockies.

Gray escaped a couple of jams in his final two innings, letting the first two reach in the fourth, then striking out the out the side then finding himself in a first and third, one out situation in the fifth before inducing a double play.

His final line: 5 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. He threw 63 of his 96 pitches for strikes.

Colorado recorded just one hit through the first five innings. Lynn has allowed just two earned runs in his last three starts.

A Paul DeJong two-run home run in the first, his 13th of the year, got the scoring started in the first and held up for most of the game.

Colorado fell to 58-44 and will need a loss from the Arizona Diamondbacks not to fall a game back in the Wild Card race. They will try to salvage a game in this series on Wednesday as Jeff Hoffman takes on Carlos Martinez.