The Colorado Rockies, to put it simply, looked bad in every aspect of the game of baseball en route to an 11-5 defeat against the Los Angeles Dodgers, completing a sweep for their home-opening series of 2019.
It was an absolutely brutal game for Rockies’ starter Chad Bettis who couldn’t even get through the third inning. Against the hot Dodgers lineup, he was able to escape damage in the first with a double play but gave up a pair of runs in the second in about the worst way possible.
With two outs and a runner at third, Bettis lost the eight-hole hitter, Austin Barnes, and walked him to bring up his counterpart, Julio Urias. Urias pulled the first pitch he saw through the right side for an RBI single but then Charlie Blackmon could not pick up the grounder, allowing it to roll almost to the wall and Barnes to score all the way from first.
The third inning began with a Corey Seager double away from the shift to left field and after Bettis got A.J. Pollock, an intentional walk to Cody Bellinger. That didn’t help, though, as David Freese made them pay for the free pass by lining a double to right field. Enrique Hernandez followed with a double of his own, scoring both men, and came home himself on a single up the middle from Barnes.
After Urias laid down a sac bunt, Bud Black went to get Bettis and brought in Yency Almonte who got a lineout to end the inning.
Down 6-0, the Rockies mounted a rally in the bottom of the third. Blackmon got things started with one of his better swings of the season, going with a pitch away from him and smashing it into the left-center field gap for a leadoff triple.
Trevor Story followed with a good battle that he won by lifting a liner just over the shortstop for an RBI single. Colorado kept it going with Nolan Arenado who drove one high off the wall in the right-field corner, just inside the foul pole, for another, triple thanks in part to a fortunate bounce.
Raimel Tapia, who entered the game when David Dahl had to be removed with a yet undefined side injury, drew a walk on five pitches setting up a strange play.
With just one out in the frame and runners at the corners, Ian Desmon hit a soft groundball toward shortstop. Seager fielded it and flipped to Hernandez who forgot how many outs there were and, rather than try to turn the double play, began to jog off the field.
Desmond might have beaten the throw anyway, but Arenado scored on the play to make it 6-3 and the inning still had life but Chris Iannetta lined out to end it.
Almonte stayed on for the fourth and continued to pitch well. Hee struck out Justin Turner for Seager managed a hustle double on a ball to center. Almonte bounced back to get Pollock to pop up on the infield and should have had the third out on a flyball to right but Blackmon, who was camped under the ball, just whiffed on it for his second error of the game.
It was also Blackmon’s second error in the game that led directly to a run.
Things compounded when Almonte got squeezed for a couple to leadoff walks to start the next half-frame and gave way to Carlos Estevez after a sac bunt from reliever Joe Kelly. A sac fly and a wild pitch gave the Dodgers two more runs and a two-run shot from Max Muncy in the sixth made it 11-3.
The Rockies were able to scratch out a couple of runs in the sixth thanks to singles from Garrett Hampson and Pat Valaika and a sac fly from Blackmon. The symbol of the game then came when Arenado singled to right, scoring Valaika, but Story (who was hit by a pitch) was thrown out at third for the third out of the inning.
Bellinger put some punctuation on the game with a monster home run, his seventh of the season, against Bryan Shaw in the eighth to make it 12-5, LA.
Colorado got one late on a triple from Tapia and a sac fly from Reynolds to make the final score 12-6.
What’s Next
Colorado will look to get back on track behind Kyle Freeland on Monday. He faces off against Julio Teheran of the Braves who bring a 5-4 record into Coors Field. First pitch at 6:40 Mountain Time.
