The Pittsburgh Pirates crept into town lugging eight straight losses, burdened by a 3-17 record in their last 20 road games and staring at seven consecutive losses at Coors Field.
The National League wild card-leading Rockies were sitting pretty after taking three of four games in their marquee series against the Chicago Cubs.
Naturally, the Pirates thumped the Rockies 7-3, eliciting scattered boos from a relatively large Tuesday night crowd of 35,212. The fans arrived expecting to watch the Rockies keep rolling, only to see them steamrolled by a club with the second-worst record in the NL.
However, the San Francisco Giants’ 9-1 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers kept the Rockies in possession of the wild-card lead.
Tuesday’s game began on an ominous note when 21-year-old Jhoulys Chacin — making his first major-league start because Aaron Cook was out with a sprained big toe — walked the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen. It was one of six free passes handed out by Chacin. They proved his undoing.
“Maybe I was trying to pitch too good, too nasty,” said the right-hander, who started the season with Double-A Tulsa before getting his big-league call-up on July 24.
Though Chacin gave up just one hit in his 2 2/3 innings, his wildness (71 pitches, just 36 strikes) put the Rockies in a deep hole.
“What it really boiled down to tonight was the base on balls,” Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. “I think in the case of Jhoulys, maybe he was too hyped up, he wanted to impress. That’s completely understandable.”
Chacin handed the ball off to Josh Fogg in the third with two out and two on. Delwyn Young promptly greeted Fogg with an enormous two-run triple over the head of center fielder Carlos Gonzalez. Ronny Cedeño hit a single to right, scoring Young and extending the Pirates’ lead to 5-1.
Though Fogg gave up two runs and six hits and walked three (one intentional), Tracy praised the veteran for being able to hang tough for 4 1/3 innings and save bullpen arms.
“He was our savior tonight, for him to pitch as far into the game as he did,” Tracy said.
The Rockies’ first two runs came on solo homers. In the second, Troy Tulowitzki, fresh off his Monday night cycle, banged a shot to left field off Pittsburgh starter Ross Ohlendorf. It was Tulowitzki’s 22nd homer, and his 17th since June 8.
Gonzalez hit a line-drive home run to right field off Ohlendorf in the sixth.
The Rockies pushed across another run on Seth Smith’s seventh-inning double, making noises as if they might rally. But in the eighth, the Pirates pounded out a run on two doubles off reliever Joe Beimel, scuttling the Rockies’ momentum.
Crisp throughout the Cubs series, the Rockies played lackluster baseball Tuesday, committing three errors. Tracy blamed much of that on all the walks, which left the Rockies’ defense back on its heels and standing around too much.
The most costly error came in the third when catcher Chris Iannetta made a poor throw to second base trying to gun down Garrett Jones on a double steal. The error allowed McCutchen to trot home from third and opened the gates for two more runs in Pittsburgh’s four-run inning.
“If we hadn’t thrown behind the runner, I really believe we would have gotten that guy out,” Tracy said. “If we had completed that play, it could have changed the complexion of that entire inning.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
