#11
Tuesday 13th April — Colorado Rockies vs Los Angeles Dodgers @ Dodgers Stadium
Well…
If you think it could not get any more miserable than the 4 runs the Rockies mustered over the weekend’s 3 games against the San Francisco Giants — Tuesday night asked you to ‘hold it’s beer’.
There’s really not that much to say about Tuesday night. For large swathes of the game, it felt like the Dodgers were taking batting practice against a Rockies team condemned to playing defence. The Rockies managed just two (JUST TWO) hits on the day — and both of them were from Garrett Hampson. Trevor Bauer gifted 2 more walks in the top of the 2nd inning, but apart from that the Rockies offence produced precisely zero of anything. Just a truly miserable offensive performance from a Rockies team that really needed to bounce back quickly if there’s anything to be salvaged from this season.
Given Bauer was on the mound, it was always going to be difficult for the Rockies to get anything going. Bauer, the 2020 NL Cy Young Winner (Best pitcher in the National League) bossed the Rockies all day, pitching 7 innings with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts. The Rockies just couldn’t get the ball in play off Bauer and even when they did, they couldn’t make those baserunners count. Colorado finished the day 0–4 with RISP (runners in scoring position), which shouldn’t come as a surprise given how often the Rockies have left players stranded already this season. It’s horrible having the best team in baseball in your division — and the Dodgers are by far and away the best team in baseball this season. Unfortunately for the Rockies, they have to play them 19 times this season (14 more times — and it’s currently 4–1 Dodgers).
On the defensive side of the field, the Rockies didnt fare much better. Antonio Senzatela only got through 2 and 2/3 innings before being pulled for Jhoulys Chacin. Senza gave up 5 hits, 4 Earned Runs and 3 walks against only 2 strikeouts — although we know Senza isn’t a strikeout pitcher. Robert Stephenson and Ben Bowden also got some time on the mound — with Bowden not allowing a hit in his one inning of work (I mention this because that in itself is an achievements given Bowden’s poor start to the season. He is a rookie and deserves to be cut some slack). On a slightly more positive note, seeing Josh Fuentes play defence from 3B harks the mind back to the wonder days of having perennial Gold Glover Nolan Arenado (his cousin) playing there. Fuentes had several fantastic throws across the diamond on the night and has been fantastic defensively so far this season. This was about the only positive from Tuesday evening.
There really is very little more to written about today. If you are a Dodgers fan, you probably had the time of your life watching this game, as you in effect got to see an entire baseball game with your team on offence. This Rockies team has serious issues — the offence is MIA, Rockies pitches have walked more than any other team in MLB (by a ludicrous margin) and there’s still chopping and changing of positions across the entire roster. On current pace, the Rockies figure to be winning about 40 games this year — but that pace will go up and down over the course of the season. What is clear is that whatever the Rockies are doing at the moment is not working!
Final Score — Colorado Rockies 0 — LA Dodgers 7
Rockies MVP — Honestly, not a single one of them.
Rockies Record — 3–8