The Rockies’ past ace and their proclaimed future one couldn’t save them from matching franchise infamy on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.
With veteran German Marquez and rookie Chase Dollander on the bump, Colorado lost both games of the doubleheader in Kansas City. That stretched their road skid to 13 games to tie the club record for consecutive road defeats with the 2008 team.
It also dropped the Rockies to 4-20, continuing their worst start ever, and 1-14 on the road. Colorado blew a lead in Game 1 as Marquez sputtered and the offense went silent after some early highlights, then besides one player, the bats were M.I.A. in Game 2.
“No doubt about it, it’s tough,” Rockies manager Bud Black told reporters in Kansas City of the road losing streak. “… The growing pains are being felt right now. But in the long, long run, this organization will be better off for it.”
The highlight for Colorado on another forgettable day of purple-pinstripe baseball was the suddenly red-hot bat of left fielder Jordan Beck, who mashed three homers for a total of 1,243 feet across the two games. It marked Beck’s first homers of the season, and matched his dinger tally in 55 games as a rookie in ’24. Beck is the second Rockie ever with three homers in a doubleheader, joining Larry Walker.
Two of Beck’s homers came on up-and-in fastballs, a pitch he struggled with to start the season before being sent down to Triple-A Albuquerque on April 7. The final longball was off a changeup.
“It was good to see Jordan turn on fastballs,” Black said. “That’s something we’ve tried to get him to be aware of, and not guess on pitches.
“With Jordan, we felt as though when he came back (from Triple-A on April 19), he was in a better spot. … When we sent him down, it was with a high priority to understand about hitting the fastball. Hopefully today, it might cement a few thoughts for him as it relates to the major league fastball.”
In a 7-4 loss in Game 1, Marquez hit the 1,000 career strikeout mark but was shaky once again after he was blasted for seven runs in 2/3 of an inning in his last start against the Dodgers.
Gifted a 1-0 lead in the opening inning via Hunter Goodman’s RBI single, Marquez gave up a two-run double to Salvador Pérez in the bottom of the frame.
After the Rockies re-took the lead 4-2 via Beck’s solo homer in the second and Goodman’s two-run bomb in the third, Marquez faltered again. This time, he yielded two runs on four hits in the third as the Royals tied the game on a pair of RBI singles.
Then in the fifth, Marquez opened with a pair of walks and was lifted in favor of right-hander Jake Bird. The reliever nearly got out of the jam, but a hard-hit two-out grounder down the line by Kyle Isbel went off the glove of a diving first baseman Michael Toglia and scored two runs to give Kansas City its first lead at 6-4.
Isbel helped the Royals add on in the seventh when the center fielder laid down a perfectly executed safety squeeze down the first base line. That scored a run and the speedy Isbel was safe, too, as Toglia’s throw to first couldn’t beat Isbel down the line.
Former Colorado pitcher Carlos Estevez shut the door in the ninth for his sixth save as the Rockies bats did nothing over the final six innings. The visitors finished with just four hits compared to the Royals’ 13.
In a 6-2 defeat in Game 2, Michael Lorenzen diced up the Rockies for six innings. The lone blemish was another homer by Beck, a solo shot in the sixth. Besides that, Colorado only managed four other hits off the right-hander.
Dollander didn’t fare as well.
The rookie, coming off a rough outing against the Nationals last weekend, was nicked by the Royals for five runs on seven hits through four-plus innings. That included a sacrifice fly in the second, an RBI single in the third, and then three runs on three hits in the fifth as Bobby Witt Jr. and Perez drove in runs to make it a 5-0 game. Witt is riding a career-high 16-game hit streak.
“A couple All-Stars came back to get (Dollander in the fifth),” Black said. “What I saw today was not real good command of the outside corner to right-handed hitters.”
Beck homered again in the eighth off Royals southpaw Daniel Lynch IV. And in the bottom of the inning, Colorado continued its youth movement by rolling out another fresh face.
Right-hander Juan Mejia made his MLB debut, giving the Rockies five debuts this month in addition to Zach Agnos, Braxton Fulford, Zac Veen and Dollander. It’s only the fifth time the club’s had five debuts in a calendar month, and just the second time it’s happened outside of September (June 2014). Mejia allowed one unearned run on one hit with a K.
Colorado now returns home for a six-game homestand against the Reds and Braves, which includes the club celebrating the 30th anniversary of Coors Field in Saturday’s matinee against Cincinnati.
Pitching matchup
Reds LHP Andrew Abbott (2-0, 1.64 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (0-4, 4.85)
6:40 p.m. Friday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM, 94.1 FM
Trending: German Marquez, already the franchise leader in strikeouts, hit a significant milestone on Thursday in Game 1 with 1,000 career Ks. Jorge De La Rosa is second in franchise history with 985 Ks, and the closest active Colorado pitcher to Marquez is southpaw Kyle Freeland (839).
Saturday: Reds RHP Hunter Greene (2-2, 2.35) at Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (1-3, 4.81), 1:10 p.m.
ܲԻ岹:Reds LHP Nick Lodolo (2-2, 2.79) at Rockies RHP Ryan Feltner (0-1, 3.86), 1:10 p.m.
