Losing a third consecutive game at home on a cold, miserable, rainy day is a lousy way to begin summer vacation.
But Sunday afternoon, as the Rockies scattered for a few days of all-star break R&R, their bright spirits contrasted with the gray sky and an ugly 8-5 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who swept the series at Coors Field.
“I have the normal disappointment you would have getting swept at home, and we have to play better within the division,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. “But as I just told the club, if we had swept this team, we would not be swinging from the chandeliers or taking (championship) ring sizes. We have a long way to go.”
Said shortstop Clint Barmes, who hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning to snap a drought of 98-at bats without a home run: “Nothing’s tarnished in my opinion. With the talent we have in this clubhouse, we are right in the middle of things. This series didn’t turn out the way we had hoped it would, but overall, it’s been a pretty good first half, so I’m excited about the second half coming up.”
The Rockies might genuinely feel upbeat, but that can’t disguise some hard facts:
After losing three straight to Arizona, the Rockies are just one game above .500 (44-43) and sit 3 1/2 games behind National League West-leading San Diego (48-40).
The Rockies fell to 15-21 against the NL West.
When they resume play Thursday in Cincinnati, the Rockies will be starting a 10-game, 11-day road trip.
The bullpen, so good early, has been really bad lately. After giving up seven runs in the ninth inning Saturday in an 8-7 loss, Colorado relievers gave up four more runs Sunday, turning the Rockies’ 5-2 lead into another defeat.
“We’ve had two or three bad games, but they happened to come just before the break, so everything gets blown out of proportion,” said veteran reliever Ray King, who gave up a run-scoring single to Chad Tracy in the Diamondbacks’ five-run seventh inning Sunday.
Aaron Cook took over for Jason Jennings as the Rockies’ reigning hard-luck leader. Cook was far from perfect in his 6 1/3 innings – he gave up four runs on nine hits, including a solo homer to Luis Gonzalez in the second – but deserved a better fate. When he exited with one out and two on base in the seventh, the Rockies led 5-2. But three of the next four Colorado relievers – Tom Martin, Scott Dohmann and Jose Mesa – were charged with an earned run. Colorado has lost eight of Cook’s past nine starts, and in that span the Rockies’ bullpen has a 10.71 ERA.
The Rockies jumped on Arizona relievers Randy Choate and Edgar Gonzalez in the sixth, stringing together a triple by Cory Sullivan and three straight doubles by Todd Helton, Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins to score three runs and create the 5-2 lead. But that wasn’t enough to send the Rockies out on a first-half high note.
