Waste not, want not.
Unfortunately for the 2015 Rockies, they waste a lot. Which leaves them wanting.
A revamped bullpen is high on their wish list for 2016.
Thursday afternoon, on a perfect late-September day at Coors Field, the Rockies squandered a terrific start by Chad Bettis and another big day at the plate by National League RBI leader Nolan Arenado.
They lost 5-4 to the surging Pittsburgh Pirates, who finished off a four-game sweep and won their sixth straight game. It marked the first time the Rockies were swept in a four-game series at Coors Field since Sept. 15-18, 2011 vs. San Francisco.
The dagger to the heart came in the eighth inning. Hard-throwing rookie reliever Jairo Diaz gave up singles to Starling Marte and Neil Walker and then cringed as Pedro Alvarez hit a screaming, two-out, line-drive, three-run homer into the Rockies’ bullpen beyond right field. It was the 55th homer served up by the bullpen this season.
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Manager Walt Weiss had lefty specialist Boone Logan ready in the bullpen to pitch to the left-handed hitting Alvarez, but Weiss stuck with the right-handed Diaz. After the game, Weiss had a ready explanation for his strategy.
“Jairo has been our guy in the eighth inning; he’s been lights out,” Weiss said. “He’s been better against lefties than righties.”
Diaz (0-1, 3.00 ERA) entered the game with left-handers hitting .182 against him, while right-handers were hitting .258. Then again, Alvarez has hit 113 career homers off right-handers vs. just 17 off lefties.
However, Weiss also defended his non-move by saying that if he had brought in Logan, the Pirates would likely have brought in a right-handed bat off the bench.
“Logan is not going to face Alvarez,” Weiss said. “They are going to pull him back. They’ve got (Michael) Morse and possibly (Aramis) Ramirez. Ramirez is nicked up, but possibly available. I can’t assume that he’s not.
“So If I pull the string right there and get Logan, it gives (the Pirates) the upper hand in matchup for the next two hitters, because they have (Gregory) Polanco sitting over there, too.”
But Diaz didn’t get the job done and Thursday’s bitter loss was the Rockies’ fifth straight and they tumbled to 33-45 in their home ballpark.
“I tried to stay down and away on the pitch (to Alvarez),” Diaz said. “But I left the ball over the middle.”
While the playoff-bound Pirates still have designs on catching St. Louis in the National League Central, the Rockies are, once again, looking toward next year.
Fittingly, the Rockies ran out a lineup Thursday afternoon that resembled a Cactus League squad. But with Bettis continuing his maturation into a dependable and effective starter, and Arenado slugging two doubles and driving in two runs to pump his RBI total to 117, Colorado appeared set to scuttle the Pirates for a change. It didn’t happen, as the Pirates beat Colorado for the 10th time in the last 13 games.
In a season marked by so many ugly and forgettable pitching performances, Bettis has been memorably effective.
The right-hander was good again Thursday, giving the Rockies six strong innings as he lowered his ERA to 4.38. The Pirates nicked him for two runs on seven hits but never rattled the right-hander. He whiffed six, none bigger than his two-out, two-on, first-inning strikeout of Jordy Mercer in the first to squash a Pirates’ rally at one run.
“I felt in control, but I wanted to be a little bit more efficient, and possibly go out there for the seventh inning,” said Bettis, who threw 97 pitches, 58 for strikes.
Bettis has had a couple of stinkers this season, but he appears to have locked up a spot in the 2016 starting rotation. In his last six starts since coming off a stint on the disabled list because of elbow inflammation, Bettis is 3-1 with a 3.24 ERA.
“He’s always had that great mentality to stay calm out there,” Weiss said. “He always competes and he always has strong body language out there.”
Arenado’s two-run double came in the third inning. Add on Cristhian Adames’ run-scoring triple in the fifth and a pinch-hit RBI single by Ben Paulsen in the sixth and the Rockies looked in command.
But as the season has this season shown time and time again, Colorado’s bullpen undoes a lot of good.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or @psaundersdp
