DETROIT — Halfway home, the Rockies are a million miles from where they thought they’d be.
And tonight, they suffered their most crushing loss of the season.
After staging an out-of-nowhere, ninth-inning rally at Comerica Park, they lost 7-6 when Miguel Cabrera smashed a two-run double off closer Brian Fuentes in the bottom of the inning.
In the 81st game of their 162-game schedule, the Rockies lost their sixth straight and fell for the seventh time in their last eight games.
At 32-49, they are 17 games under .500 and going nowhere in a hurry. At the midway point last year, they were 39-42, a mere three games under.
However, thanks to mediocrity in the National League West, the Rockies still trail first-place Arizona by only nine games. At this time last season, the Rockies were eight games out.
Colorado’s would-be winning rally started in the ninth against closer Todd Jones. Todd Helton doubled and scored on Matt Holliday’s single. Garrett Atkins drew a two-out walk and Holliday then scored on Ryan Spilborgh’s single. Colorado tied the game on Jeff Baker’s single. They thought they’d won the game on a double down the right-field line by Chris Iannetta.
Until the dramatic ninth inning, the Rockies looked is if they would were victimized by their same old bugaboos – namely poor starting pitching and a lack of timely hitting.
Jeff Francis fell to 3-8, giving up five runs (four earned) on 10 hits in six innings. Francis struggled from the outset but managed to keep the Rockies in the game. That is until the fateful fourth inning. He gave up a two-out walk to Carlos Guillen to load the bases, then saw outfielder Ryan Raburn take his 78 mph changeup and plant it in the left-field seats. Raburn’s first grand slam of his career out the Tigers ahead 5-0.
The Rockies never could solve Tigers starter Justin Verlander, notching one run against him over 5 1/3 innings.
The Rockies had a couple of chances to hurt him, but he wriggled out of jams. In the first, with one out and Rockies on first and second, Velander struck out Brad Hawpe and got Garrett Atkins to ground out. In the fifth, with two outs and the bases full, Hawpe came to the plate again. Once again, he struck out.
The Rockies blew another chance in the sixth, this time against reliever Zach Miner. Willy Taveras’ run-scoring single loaded the bases for Todd Helton, who’s been moved into the No. 2 spot in the lineup. Helton had a chance to put the Rockies back in the game. Instead, Miner struck him out on a checked swing.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
