Giants 6, Rockies 3: 0-11 with RISP equals another loss

Sep 29, 2022 - 5:27 AM

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It was the same story on Wednesday night for the Rockies: fall behind early, bullpen struggles, and a weak showing for the offense. The results mean the Rockies have now lost seven straight games to the Giants and four in a row overall.

Giants squash Rockies bats

Five different San Francisco pitchers combined to dominate the Rockies, holding them to four hits in the entire game. Through six innings, the Rockies only had two hits — a homer by Alan Trejo and a single by Yonathan Daza — and one walk (via the walking machine, Sean Bouchard). The real shutdown performance came in the sixth inning when Shelby Miller entered for the Giants. He faced six Rockies over two innings and struck out five of them. C.J. Cron flied out as the only non-K. Tyler Rogers entered the game in the sixth and posted two more strikeouts, including the third strikeout of the night for Ryan McMahon. The Rockies stuck out 11 times total — with nine of those coming in the last three innings — and went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Trejo Oppo

Trejo hit his fourth homer of the year, cutting the Giants lead to 3-2 in the fifth inning. He took a 2-1 sinker from Sean Hjelle to right field, just sneaking over the right field brick wall to 332 feet.

In the eighth inning, Trejo led off with a double to account for 50% of the Rockies hits on the night. Daza followed with a walk, but the Rockies couldn’t do anything with the baserunners.

Bullpen blues

Justin Lawerence relieved José Ureña in the sixth and it didn’t go very well. He gave up three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. That took 27 pitches and then Lawrence surrendered a sac fly to Ford Proctor to put the Giants up 4-2 before Bud Black pulled Lawrence from the game. Chad Smith entered and Joc Pederson pounced on him, hitting a triple to right center field and increasing the Giants lead to 6-2. Smith bounced back by striking out three Giants in the seventh, but the damage was already done.

Brightspot Blach

Ty Blach returned to the Rockies roster on Tuesday when Carlos Estévez was placed on the COVID-19 IL and he was lights out on Wednesday. In the eighth inning, in 10 pitches, he struck out Joey Bart, Ford Proctor, and Austin Slater. Blach threw seven straight strikes before his first and only ball. It lost him the immaculate inning, but it was one of the few Rockies highlights in the game.

In the hole early, but Ureña finishes strong

The Giants came out swinging as Pederson, J.D. Davis, and Mike Yastrzemski hit back-to-back-to-back singles to take an early lead. This was made worse when Yonathan Daza threw in Yastrzemski’s single errantly, allowing Davis to score and Yaz to advance to third. He then scored on a Brandon Crawford sac fly to put the Giants up 3-0 after the first frame. The Rockies now have 98 errors on the year, which ranks fourth worst in MLB. After the first inning, Ureña gave up two earned runs (three total) on three hits with one walk and one strikeout. He bounced back to throw four shutout innings, only giving up one more hit and throwing five more strikeouts. He walked four Giants, including two in the second inning, but got some help from a sliding catch by Bouchard to rob Yastrzemski of a run-scoring single. Bouchard did the same thing to Yastrzemski in the fifth inning.

Rockies squeak in a few runs, but can’t manage rally

The Rockies got on the board in the second, thanks mostly to a pair of fielding errors by the Giants, who have 97 errors on the year, which is fifth worst. After Cron walked, Bouchard reached on an error. Then Elehuris Montero did the same when his grounder to San Francisco pitcher Sean Hjelle, who then airmailed the throw to center field. This allowed Cron to score, but that’s all the Rockies managed because Michael Toglia grounded into a double play. In the ninth, Elias Díaz led off with a single. Bouchard followed with another walk, but Montero and Toglia both grounded out — at least they both moved runners including Toglia plating Díaz. Trejo then struck out to end the game.

Up next

The Rockies and Giants will play each other for the last time this season on Thursday night when Colorado righty Ryan Feltner (3-8, 5.91 ERA) will face off against San Francisco LHP Carlos Rodón (13-8, 2.98 ERA). First pitch is slated for 7:45 p.m. MDT.