Rockies-Reds Series Grades: Here comes Carlos Gonzalez

The Colorado Rockies came a strike away from sweeping the Reds and got some pretty solid performances all around.

The offense and starting pitching (mostly) did their part but, as anyone reading this will likely viscerally recall, the bullpen continued to struggle throughout the series, finally costing the club a game in the finale.

Here are our individual player grades for the three-game set.

Carlos Gonzalez (A): With six hits and a walk in 15 plate appearances, highlighted by a three-run blast that went farther than any other Rockies home run this season, CarGo was the MVP of the series for Colorado. He drove in five and scored four times.

Charlie Blackmon (B+): Blackmon stayed hot in Cincy, throwing out five base hits with a triple, and RBI, and two runs scored.

Nolan Arenado (B): With four hits, including a double, three walks and two runs scored, Arenado made himself a consistent presence in the box but didn’t exactly dominate the series.

Ian Desmond (B): He only had two hits but also walked twice and made the most of one of the hits by making it a two-run homer. Desmond also scored three runs as a part of his resurgence.

Chris Iannetta (B-): Ianetta’s two-run homer was essential for winning the first game of the set.

Tony Wolters (C+): His two hits and two RBI were instrumental in winning the second game, but he showed some uncharacteristic slowness behind the plate that may have cost the Rockies in the final innings of the final game.

DJ LeMahieu (D+): He only collected a pair of hits, one double, but he scored three times and played his usual excellent defense at second.

Trevor Story (D+): He played some nice defense at shortstop but only managed two hits with a double and a walk.

Tyler Anderson (A-): The lefty did just about everything he could to prevent what would eventually happen on Thursday, pitching seven innings of two-run baseball, giving up just five hits.

Kyle Freeland (B): Freeland wasn’t quite as in control as he has been lately but scattered nine hits to allow just three runs over 6.2 innings of work. He used a 7:1 strikeout to walk ratio to escape damage and earn his team the win.

Jon Gray (C+): It was far from dominant, but Gray’s five-inning, three-run performance was a step in the right direction for the uber-talented pitcher who has struggled so far through 2018.

Bullpen (F): It can be difficult at times to parse the performance of each member of the ‘pen enough to make grades that hold any value. And while there were hints of some positive signs if you squint really hard and tilt your head sideways, the whole series was another collection of “oh no, here we go again” moments for the Rox bullpen so they get the “F” as a collective.