Rox bullpen suffers worst inning of season in loss

DENVER – It was a close game for a while. The Colorado Rockies even held an advantage for much of it.

But the recent struggles of the bullpen went from a steady stream of frustration to a raging river of…. well, runs.

The Los Angeles Dodgers took advantage of a ‘pen that is searching for literally anyone other than Wade Davis to find a clean inning somewhere, playing eight runs the second German Marquez left the game, taking a tight contest and turning it into a laugher.

Of course, it was Rockie-killer Matt Kemp who got the Dodgers rally going in the second, singling to right on the first pitch of the inning. After a fly out, Joc Pederson, again on the first pitch, doubles to center field but Blackmon cut it off nicely to prevent any runs from scoring.

The first did come in on a groundball out to shortstop off the bat of Yasiel Puig, but Marquez wasn’t able to limit the damage to just one run, surrendering a two-out single to Breyvic Valera, only his second hit of the season, to make it 2-0 Dodgers.

But the Rockies struck back immediately and with great force. It started with a single up the middle from Trevor Story and a walk by Ian Desmond. The light-hitting Tony Wolters came through with a single through the right side to get the Rockies on the board.

After Buehler was able to retire Marquez, DJ LeMahieu kept his hot return going by pulling a double on a grounder inside the third base bag, scoring two and swinging the score in favor of the Rockies. Blackmon followed up with a single to left, plating LeMahieu to make the score 4-2.

But Pederson got to Marquez for solo home runs in the fourth and sixth to tie the game before everything fell apart in the seventh for the Rockies.

The Dodgers plated eight runs in the frame against Bryan Shaw, Mike Dunn, and Harrison Musgrave, blowing the game way out of proportion.

Kemp, naturally, delivered the first big blow, a two-run shot off of Shaw and Chris Taylor added a two-run triple during the preceding that also saw a couple of runs score thanks to wild pitches.

It was, in just about every way, the worst inning of the season for the Rockies who are now desperately searching for answers to questions marking every spot in their bullpen except the last one.

The Rockies lost their third straight, they have yet to lose four straight in 2018.

Final Score: Dodgers 12, Rockies 4

Final Stats:

German Marquez: 6 IP, 7 H, 4 ER, 3 BB, 8 K

Bryan Shaw: 0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER

Mike Dunn: 0.0, 2 H, 4 ER, 2 BB

Harrison Musgrave: 2.2, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K

What’s Next:

The Rockies will try to salvage a game in the series on Sunday afternoon. Chad Bettis faces off against Alex Wood. Colorado will surely want him to go as deep as possible. First pitch at 1:10 Mountain Time.