With Colorado’s lone silver lining of Sunday’s 11-4 loss and four-game sweep by St. Louis game being Nolan Arenado’s 3-for-5 performance, which included his 33rd home run of the season, the perennial Gold Glover recorded his 100th run batted in of the year, his fifth-straight season at the century mark.
As for the more lurid details of the affair, it all began after a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay. The Rockies staked starting pitcher Antonio Senzatela to a 2-0 lead with a run across the first and second frame; from that point on, the Cardinals’ outscored the Rockies 11-2.
In the first, Trevor Story and Arenado notched back-to-back singles against Cardinals’ starting pitching Michael Wacha to put runners on the corners. Yonder Alonso added another one-bagger to score Story.
After falling behind in the count 0-2, Garrett Hampson held off two consecutive balls before lashing his third home run of the season over the left field wall for a solo shot that traveled 379 ft.
Senzatela, promoted from Triple-A ahead of Sunday’s game with DJ Johnson going the other way, worked a quick 11 pitch first before opening the flood gates in the bottom half of the second. Matt Carpenter knocked an RBI single and Dexter Fowler recorded a bases loaded walk that tied the score. Tommy Edman swatted a double that plated two more and Paul Goldschmidt drove in another two on a single to chase the 24-year-old from the 6-2 ball game.
Final pitching line for Senzatela: 1.2 IP, 5 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO, 53 pitches.
Jesus Tinoco worked around three walks during 2.1 innings and gave up only a solo home run to Carpenter during his time on the bump. Wade Davis entered in the fifth and gave up two runs on a walk and three hits; a third run was thwarted on a great throw home from left fielder Yonathan Daza to end the inning.
Carlos Estévez struggled in the sixth, but gave up only one and escaped with two runners aboard by getting his second strikeout on three pitches. Bryan Shaw couldn’t break the streak and also surrendered a run during his inning, a solo home run to pinch hitter Lane Thomas.
Jake McGee threw a scoreless eighth on two fly ball outs and one ground out.
On offense, the Rockies could only muster one hit in the final four-plus innings after Arenado’s home run; coincidentally, it was a double from Arenado.
With the loss, Colorado falls to 58-73 (.443) and drops to .316 (18-39) since June 21, the lowest in the league and second-lowest in MLB.
