Rockies pry defeat from the jaws of victory in latest inexplicable loss

There is no way around how bad of a loss the Colorado Rockies suffered in their final game in Texas Sunday afternoon.

A 5-1 lead became a 6-5 deficit which quickly became a 10-6 lead that was dwindled down to 10-9 before again being extended to 12-9 and finally being blown for a crushing 13-12 loss. This, folks, was the worst loss of the season.

This goes beyond coulda-woulda-shoulda and goes into the category of games that were given away to the opposition by poor play, silly mistakes, and free bases; Not by getting beat by a team that got hot at the right time. The Rangers didn’t beat the Rockies in this one. The Rockies threw it away.

DJ LeMahieu started things off with the first leadoff home run of his career, a hooking line drive that bounced off the foul pole in left to give the Rockies a 1-0 lead.

The Rockies added in the fourth, scoring three more runs without the benefit of an extra-base hit. Carlos Gonzalez drew a one-out walk and advanced on a Trevor Story single up the middle. Gerardo Parra followed with a second straight single to center to score the second run.

Ian Desmond made it three singles in a row with a line drive over the second baseman, collecting his 40th RBI of the season. Tom Murphy made it 4-0 on a groundout to the shortstop that scored Parra who advanced to third on Desmond’s hit.

Gray had not allowed a base runner and had struck out six straight batters going into the fourth inning but he was greeted by a groundball single up the middle off the bat of Delino DeShields who then stole second and scored on a single in the same spot from Noma Mazara.

But as has so often been the case lately, things fell apart for the Rockies in the sixth.

It started with the usual bad omen, a leadoff walk. Then Gray began his seemingly weekly bout with stupidly bad luck when a bouncing ball squeaked just past Ryan McMahon at first for a Shin-Soo Choo single but on the play, Ronald Guzman decided to test the arm of Gonzalez in right.

What usually ends up as a big mistake, and could easily have gone down as an out with an online throw, became a huge blunder as CarGo’s throw skipped by Nolan Arenado at third. Things stayed messy on the next play when DeShields tried to give himself up on a sac bunt but LeMahieu dropped the ball on the exchange at first.

Still, despite all of that ugliness, Colorado led 5-2 but the poor play appeared to aggravate Gray who threw a couple of lazy pitches to Mazara and Jurrickson Profas who singled and homered respectively to give the Rangers a very sudden 6-5 lead.

Until the Profar blast, none of the pitches Gray threw in the inning—really in the game—had been hit especially hard but he once again showed a mental lapse at the worst possible time, trying to throw his way out of a problem rather than pitch his way out. Before that inning, he looked every bit the “ace” type of pitcher that we saw for the second half of last season, but in the sixth, he encapsulated everything that has gone wrong with his 2018 campaign.

His teammates picked him up right away, though.

McMahon got things started with a line drive single to right. The Rangers then caught a momentary break when LeMahieu lined a double into the gap that hopped over the wall, preventing McMahon from scoring the tying run. But he came in anyway on an infield single by Charlie Blackmon who beat out a close play with a dive at the bag.

Arenado followed by ripping a groundball through the six-hole to give Colorado back the lead they had just blown before recording their first out. Gonzalez kept it going with a liner to left that was good for a single but hit too hard for the runner to score. That brought the home-town kid Trevor Story to the plate with the bases loaded an nobody out. But he struck out.

Gerardo Parra, however, did not.

He made sure the Rockies wouldn’t simply settle for retaking a narrow lead, providing some breathing room by cracking a double over the head of DeShields in center field, clearing the bases to give the Rockies a 10-6 lead.

The Rangers answered back against Jake McGee who committed a couple of cardinal sins when he opened the inning by hitting Robinson Chirinos and walking Guzman. He made matters worse by taking a typical double play out of order with a wild pitch, allowing both runners to advance.

He got Choo to ground out to second, getting the first out of the inning but giving up a run. Bryan Shaw then replaced McGee and immediately unleashed four wide ones to walk DeShields. He then got another groundout to second that allowed a run. One pitch away from escaping a frustrating inning while still holding a two-run lead, Profar hammered a double to left to plate another and bring the Rangers within one.

Manager Bud Black then turned to Chris Rusin in desperate search of a third out and things stayed tense when Rusin plunked his first batter then gave up a line drive to Isiah Kiner-Falefa but CarGo was able to track it down in right and put a merciful end to the inning.

Adam Ottavino came on in the eighth and did lose a long battle to Guzman who singled with two outs on the ninth pitch of the at-bat. But Otto quickly retired Choo to restore some sanity to the proceedings.

The Rockies offense again provided some space in the top of the ninth when Gonzalez lined a one-out double and came around on a Texas-sized home run from native Trevor Story, collecting his NL-leading 53rd and 54th RBI of the season.

Wade Davis, the one pitcher in the Rockies bullpen who has been underused lately, entered the game in the ninth clearly looking rusty and struggling with his command, walking the first two batters he faced to immediately put the tying run at the plate in a game that had already seen its fair share of dramatics.

He managed to get Profar, who had already done damage in this one, to fly out in foul territory on a nice play from Parra in left but then surrendered a single to Rougned Odor that loaded the bases.

Still unable to find his control he walked Kiner-Falefa and Joey Gallo—who was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in the game—before giving up a dinky bloop single to Jose Trevino to complete the blown game.

What’s Next:

The Rockies return home on Monday to being a three-game set with the New York Mets. The first game sees Jacob DeGrom take on Tyler Anderson. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.