Rockies pitching falters again in loss to Giants

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies got their season back on track a few weeks ago when the starting pitching clicked but have struggled in the last five days to get even quality starts.

Another bad outing from a starter, this time Antonio Senzatela, doomed the Rox in the first game of their series against the San Francisco Giants.

The Rockies got on the board first when Charlie Blackmon took Madison Bumgarner’s second pitch of the game deep into the Rockies bullpen for a solo home run. It was his fifth homer run of the year.

But the Giants tied it up right away with a solo home run of their own, to almost the same spot, off the bat of Evan Longoria who hammered a centercut 3-2 fastball.

The remained a 1-1 tie until Senzatela ran into a nightmare in the top of the fourth. After two quick outs, Brandon Belt doubled to left center and Longoria walked on four pitches.

Senzatela nearly got the newly-recalled Mac Williamson to pop up but the ball drifted into the front row down the first base side. That near miss proved to be a major one as five runs came around after what could have been the final out of the inning.

Williamson turned on the next pitch and drove it just barel over the wall in left field for a three-run jack to give the Giants a lead.

Brandon Crawford kept the pressure on with a single and Kevin Pillar poured salt in the wound with another homer to left, suddenly putting San Francisco in front 6-1.

Colorado answered in the bottom of the fourth but should have gotten more.

Nolan Arenado provided a one-out single and came all the way around to score when Ian Desmond tripled off the wall in right center. But Raimel Tapia was unable to plate him with a productive out as both he and Garrett Hampson both went down swinging to strand Desmond at third.

It was more of the same for Senzatela in the fifth. After a couple of quick outs, Belt doubled to left again and ran Senza from the game. Bud Black went to Yency Almonte who walked Longoria but got ahead of Williamson 1-2 before executing a good fastball up and away. But Williamson went with the pitch and lined it softly into center to score another run, making it 7-2 Giants before Almonte could put the inning away.

The Rockies got one back in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run by Chris Iannetta.

The Giants added some insurance on a two-run single from Steven Duggar against Seunghwan Oh.

Colorado got one back in the bottom half on Desmond’s second triple of the game an Tapia’s third hit, a double down the right field line, to make it 9-4.

Then the Giants pulled away with another quintet of runs in the ninth against DJ Johnson to make the final score 14-4.