DENVER — Before Thursday’s series opener against the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black acknowledged the team’s poor pitching is the primary reason for Colorado’s free-fall over the past month.
“We’ve can’t have the variability of what’s going on with our pitching because it makes it too hard to win,” Black said. “We have to do a better job.”
But it was hard again on Thursday, no one did a better job and the free-fall continued.
Southpaw starter Austin Gomber was roughed up for nine runs in five innings, including two home runs and the bullpen didn’t fare much better in a 13-6 loss at Coors Field.
The Rockies needed just three pitches to take the lead when Connor Joe doubled and then Charlie Blackmon singled off right-hander Ian Anderson in the first inning. But it was all Braves from there.
Guillermo Heredia’s RBI triple tied the game in the second, then Atlanta tacked on two more unearned runs in the frame after a throwing error by second baseman Brendan Rodgers. Colorado is last in the majors with 42 errors this year.
Travis d’Arnaud then turned Gomber’s day from mediocre to terrible practically all by himself. The Braves catcher had a two-out, two-run homer to left in the third inning on a first-pitch changeup, then cranked a grand slam to left off a first-pitch curveball in the fifth inning to stretch the visitors’ lead to 9-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Blackmon had an RBI single and C.J. Cron hit his 14th homer, making it 9-4. The Braves tacked on four runs on seven hits across three innings against left-hander Ty Blach.
Colorado, in last place in the National League West, has lost 17 of its last 23 games after starting the season 16-11.
The biggest ovation in the game came in the eighth inning, when the Avalanche’s winning score flashed on the big screen. That was just before Jose Iglesias collided with Rodgers as both attempted to field a chopped ground ball off the bat of Ronald Acuna Jr. The hit was ruled a single, and epitomized the ugly brand of baseball Colorado has been playing for several weeks.
