Coors Field sits a mile high. But Wednesday night, it felt more like Death Valley, 282 feet below sea level.
The Rockies got creamed 11-3 by the streaking New York Mets. Colorado lost for the ninth time in 11 games, falling a season-worst 10 games below .500 at 61-71.
The Mets, 33 games above .500, won for the 11th time in 12 games.
Before fans could settle into their seats, Rockies starter Josh Fogg had already given up a single and two walks, setting the stage for a grand slam by Mets third baseman David Wright. The team-record 10th slam of the season already is two better than the previous best, set in 1999 and 2000.
Second baseman Jose Valentin followed Wright’s blow with a 418-foot solo homer off the back wall of the Rockies’ bullpen to give the Mets a 5-0 first-inning lead.
Fogg got the hook with one out in the second inning, the shortest outing by a Rockies pitcher this season. Fogg’s line: eight earned runs on five hits with three walks.
“I only got four outs, plain and simple, and that’s not enough for a starter,” said Fogg, who’s thrown less than five innings in four of his past seven starts. “I won’t forget about tonight, that’s for sure. It stings a lot. I wanted to crawl into a hole. I wasn’t myself out there tonight.”
Fogg wasn’t the only Rockies pitcher victimized by the Mets’ big bats. Valentin hit his second solo homer, this one off Ramon Ramirez in the third. In the sixth, Carlos Delgado hit a solo homer off Jeremy Affeldt. It was Delgado’s 34th homer of the season and eighth in his past 12 games.
Before the loss – the Rockies’ fifth straight to the Mets by a cumulative score of 36-15 – manager Clint Hurdle was asked if his club had any chance of making the playoffs.
“I wouldn’t say we are completely out of it,” he answered. “But the reality is that we are on the outside looking in, rather than the inside looking out.”
Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
