Rockies pitching remains a mess in fourth straight loss

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies are currently trying to win baseball games with a starting pitching rotation full of guys who were not on the Opening Day roster. And they look like it right now.

Antonio Senzatela’s struggles, especially when it comes to missing bats, continued in full force in a Friday night loss at Coors Field against the Pittsburgh Pirates that saw the home club once against battling just to make it a competitive game.

The game didn’t really get away from Senzatela until his fifth and final inning, but he was touched up all night and never felt like he was in control..

In the first, a series of singles for the Pirates scratched out a run in the top half with the Rockies tying it up on a no-doubt screaming leadoff home run for Trevor Story in the bottom half.

His 29th round-tripper of the season, scorched at 110 MPH, was his first leadoff long ball of his career.

The perfect example of Senzatela’s issues was on display in the second. He gave up a leadoff double to Adam Frazier before getting a groundout that allowed the runner to move up. With the pitcher at the plate, Senza still could not get a swing and miss, allowing a sac fly to right field that put Pittsburgh back on top.

A single from Kevin Newman and a double off the bat of Brian Reynolds extended the lead. A three-run home run by Melky Cabrera blew it open, giving the visitors a 6-1 advantage.

Colorado immediately got one back on a double for Story and a single by Ryan McMahon in the fifth, as well as another one from the same sequence by Ian Desmond and Sam Hilliard in the sixth to make it a three-run game at 6-3.

However, the Rockies couldn’t keep either rally going and the Pirates answered back with two more runs against Carlos Estevez in the seventh. Starling Marte opened it up with a double that was followed by singles from Josh Bell, Colin Moran, and Melky Cabrera.

Things might have gotten way out of hand had Estevez not gotten Frazier to ground into a 1-2-3 double play before Elias Diaz threw out one more single to make it 8-3.

In the eighth, Ian Desmond absolutely demolished one over the wall in center field, his 15th of the year.

The Pirates even got that one back to make the final score 9-4.