KANSAS CITY — Jeff Francis isn’t a No. 1 starter. He’s a fire-starter in the first.
That the Rockies are card-carrying members of the National League Worst provides hope. But the cold reality is this: They can’t call themselves contenders until they play much better for a much longer span. And that’s hard to do when the ace continues to step on banana peels before the crowd can munch its first hot dog.
In their first-ever appearance in Kansas City, the Rockies stumbled 8-4 tonight vs. the Royals, never recovering from Francis’ four-run first-inning sieve.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Rockies’ bus navigated the construction signs and hard-hat zones around Kaufmann Stadium, arriving with swollen confidence. They had won 12 of their last 18 games, and welcomed back second baseman Clint Barmes to reinforce their lineup.
“It’s just a matter of when, offensively. We have kind of crept back into things,” third baseman Garrett Atkins said. “We are no longer the worst team in the league anymore.”
On a humid Midwestern evening, the Rockies looked more like a bottom feeder, infected by poor starting pitching and ugly base running.
A season removed from a career-high 17 victories, Francis has yet to win back-to-back starts this season. The first-inning provides adequate explanation. When he doesn’t allow a run in an opponents’ initial at-bat, his ERA is 2.96. Problem is he’s been punished in the first in eight of 16 starts, totaling 19 runs.
Monday’s launch was ominous, if not completely destructive. Leadoff hitter David DeJesus greeted Francis with a triple that rattled around the right-field corner. Mike Aviles doubled him home. With two outs, Mark Teahen crushed an 86-mph fastball to left field, shoving the Royals ahead 4-0.
Like pop stars, the Royals only focused on the big hits in the series opener, seven of their eight going for extra bases. Ross Gload, an erstwhile Rockie, posted his first home run in 225 at-bats and Miguel Olivo’s double was his first hit of any kind since June 9.
The Rockies threatened in the fifth before they ran into bad luck. With runners on second and third and no outs, Willy Taveras hit a sharp groundball to third baseman Alex Gordon. Gordon was playing at the cut of the grass, guarding against the bunt. When he caught the ball, Chris Iannetta was stuck. Gordon tagged him and threw a dart to first to nail Taveras who came out of the box awkwardly after swinging at the inside pitch.
“It was the worst place we could hit it. It was (nobody’s) fault,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
That happened twice as Clint Barmes grounded into a 1-2-3 bases-double play in the second inning to help bail out effectively wild starter Brian Bannister.
Those type of plays, whether ill-fated or lacking precise execution, brought reminders of a team that failed to execute for six weeks as it slid dangerously toward oblivion.
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com