Rockies rally against Greinke but bullpen blows another one

There was a brief moment Tuesday night when it looked like the Colorado Rockies might come back and steal a game in Texas against the ultra-stacked HoustonAstros.

Despite falling behind in the orange-clad debut of Zack Greinke, who was clearly trying to impress his new teammates and fans, the Rockies battled back against the familiar foe before the bullpen fell apart once again and the Astros ran away with the game.

The home club took the lead in the second off of German Marquez who stumbled a bit after three promising starts. A double from Alex Bregman and a long home run from Yordan Alvarez gave the ‘Stros a 2-0 lead and began a stretch of six consecutive innings in which Houston plated at least one run.

Marquez almost stranded a leadoff triple from Josh Reddick in the second but a two-out base hit from Michael Brantley made it 3-0.

The Rockies answered with a pair of runs in the top of the fourth after an infield single from Trevor Story and a walk by Daniel Murphy was followed by a wild pitch. Nolan Arenado produced a sac fly and Ryan McMahon a double to make it 3-2.

Houston came back with a solo home run to right off the bat of Yuli Gurriel that barely cleared the wall with a hit probability of 12 percent. Brantley brought in another in the fifth on a force out after singles by Jose Altuve and George Springer.

With no momentum on their side, Colorado surprisingly got right back into the game in the sixth. Greinke didn’t seem too concerned after a single by Murphy and a walk to McMahon but he probably wasn’t expecting Raimel Tapia to wait back on a curveball and hook it inside the right-field foul pole for his eighth home run of the season, a game-tying three-run shot.

The momentum shift lasted all of one batter.

Chi Chi Gonzalez made his first appearance out of the bullpen in the bottom of the sixth and Carlos Correa greeted him with a homer to right. Gurriel walked and Arenado committed a rare throwing error that set up a single by Springer against Jake McGee that put Houston on top 7-5.

Charlie Blackmon gave Rockies’ fans one more glimpse of hope with a towering home run in the top of the seventh that pulled the Rockies to within a run before everything fell apart in the bottom half.

Bryan Shaw gave up a single to Brantley and walked Bregman before getting a deep fly out from Alvarez. Correa doubled on a hard grounder down the third-base line and Gurriel delivered the dagger with a line drive homer to left to make the final score 11-6.