Just how low can the Rockies go? There’s no telling, not after getting swept in Miami by another bad baseball team.
The Marlins finished their three-game broom job with a 5-4 walk-off win in the 10th inning Thursday afternoon at loanDepot park. The Marlins’ Jesus Sanchez lined a single to left off lefty reliever Jalen Beeks to drive in ghost runner Luis Arraez.
After the game, the Rockies closed the clubhouse to the media to hold a team meeting, presumably to figure out how to stop the bleeding.
Manager Bud Black declined to comment on what was said in the meeting, telling MLB.com: “It’s sensitive, right? It’s sensitive for the manager and the coaches to the team. So I’ll keep that within our clubhouse, but it’s a fair question.”
The Rockies, who have lost five straight games, slid to 7-24 overall and 2-17 on the road. They have yet to win a series this season, dropping nine and splitting one.
Black said the Rockies are still “playing with a lot of heart.”
“Morale is fine,” Black told MLB.com. “Guys are playing their (butts) off. We’re just not getting the clutch hit, or making a big pitch. Our guys, man, they’re fighting. It’s just not happening, and we’re not doing a lot offensively.
“I talked to them after the game and, you know, they’re frustrated because of the tough losses. But, man, this group has a lot of heart. We’re just not getting it done on the field.”
Colorado’s offensive ineptitude is stunning. On Thursday, it struck out 16 times, went 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position, and left nine men stranded.
The Rockies botched a chance to score the go-ahead run in the ninth. Brendan Rodgers and Jordan Beck opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Jake Cave put down a bunt back to the mound. Reliever Anthony Maldonado threw wildly to third, attempting to force out Rodgers. Rodgers broke toward home as the ball went into left field but then held up, and Becked was tagged out in no-man’s land between second and third.
The Rockies also wasted stellar relief work from lefty Ty Blach. In the fourth, he rescued starter Peter Lambert, coming on to get the dangerous Arraez to ground into an inning-end double play. Blach pitched four innings, giving up three hits but no walks and no runs.
The Rockies made some bad history in the first inning.
The Marlins scored twice, marking the 31st time in 31 games to start this season that the Rockies have trailed at some point in a game, extending their modern-era major league record. Moreover, trailing in 31 consecutive games is the longest streak at any point in a season in franchise history. The 1998 Rockies trailed in 30 consecutive games from June 15 to July 20.
Miami didn’t waste any time getting to Lambert. Arraez led off with a double, Bryan De La Cruz walked and Jazz Chisholm drove in Arraez with a single to left. Chisholm scored on Jesus Sanchez’s sacrifice fly.
In the second, Colorado responded with a three-run homer by catcher Jacob Stallings to take a short-lived 3-2 lead.
The Marlins tied the game on Josh Bell’s one-out solo homer off Lambert in the third and took a 4-3 lead in the fourth. Lambert walked Dane Myers to open the inning, Myers stole second and advanced to third on Lambert’s wild pitch. He scored on Nick Fortes’ single to center.
Colorado tied the game, 4-4, in the fifth, combining a leadoff walk by Jake Cave, a single by Stallings and a walk by Hunter Goodman to load the bases against starter Edward Cabrera. Reliever Calvin Faucher got Ezequiel Tovar to ground into a double play, but Cave was able to score.
Lambert’s ERA soared to 5.66 after going 3 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on five hits, with three walks and three strikeouts.
Friday’s pitching matchup
Rockies RHP Cal Quantrill (0-3, 5.34 ERA) at Pirates LHP Martin Perez (1-1, 2.86)
4:40 p.m. Friday, PNC Park
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
Quantrill had been pitching well, tossing three consecutive quality starts, until the Astros beat him up last Saturday in Mexico City. The right-hander was tagged for six runs on six hits, including two home runs, with two walks and two strikeouts over five innings. Quantill has pitched four times against the Pirates (three starts), going 0-1 with a 3.60 ERA. His last start against the Pirates came in 2021 at PNC Park when he pitched five scoreless innings.
Perez, 33, is coming off a strong start at San Francisco’s Oracle Park when he allowed one unearned run in six innings but got a no-decision. The lefty has allowed two earned runs or fewer in four of his first six starts, and he’s allowed just one home run in 34 2/3 innings. Perez is 2-2 with a 3.74 ERA in six career starts against the Rockies. He notched a victory last season against the Rockies while pitching for Texas, allowing two runs over seven innings in the Rangers’ 7-2 victory.
Pitching probables
Saturday: Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (0-2, 4.50) at RHP Jared Jones (2-3, 3.18 ERA), 2:20 p.m.
Sunday: Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (1-2, 5.13) at LHP Bailey Falter (2-2, 4.22), 11:35 a.m.
Monday: Off day
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