This one’s going to leave a mark. And that’s saying something considering that the Rockies now own a 6-29 record.
The Tigers beat them 8-6 in 10 innings on Wednesday night at Coors Field. Spencer Torkelson drove a double off closer Zach Agnos into the right-center gap to score ghost runner Riley Greene.
Agnos got the next two hitters, but then came Colorado’s Keystone Cops moment. Trey Sweeny hit a flyball to shallow left, where left fielder Jordan Beck and shortstop Alan Trejo converged. There was confusion and a near collision, and the ball glanced off Beck’s glove for an error.
“It’s one of those plays that is really tough,” manager Bud Black said. “Both players are going for the ball. If you ask Jordan, he’ll probably tell you that he should have had it.
“He got there in time. Whether he took his eye off the ball or not … I’m not sure. Beck probably felt Trejo to some extent, but he just didn’t make the catch.”
Wednesday’s loss was perhaps the most crushing of the Rockies’ difficult season, especially considering that four relievers combined to blank Detroit for five innings. But Colorado hit 2 for 13 with runners in scoring position, continuing their season-long failure to deliver clutch hits. Colorado was blanked for the final six innings.
“This was a tough one, and I feel like we could have won it,” said first baseman Michael Toglia, who hit a two-run homer and two doubles. “We stopped scoring. And at Coors, against a team like that, you have to be relentless and keep pouring on runs.”
The Rockies became the first team since the 1988 Orioles (5-30) to have 29 losses through their first 35 games. The latest defeat left Black singing a familiar refrain.
“The story is, we had some guys in scoring position and we had some opportunities. … but we just couldn’t cash in, couldn’t get the big hit,” Black said.
Colorado is hitting .198 with runners in scoring position. Only the Orioles (.192) are worse.
Touting the best relief corps in the American League (2.43 ERA), the Tigers (24-13) have the AL’s best record. The Rockies went toe-to-toe with them, but, per usual, the Rockies ended up on the canvas.
Colorado was on the doorstep of a victory in both the eighth and ninth innings. In the eighth, it loaded the bases against right-hander Tommy Kahnle, who once briefly pitched for the Rockies. But Brenton Doyle ripped Kahnle’s 2-2 changeup — straight into the glove of third baseman Zach McInstry for the third out.
In the ninth, McMahon ripped an opposite-field, one-out double to left-center off Will Vest, McMahon’s fourth hit of the game. But Vest struck out Hunter Goodman and pinch-hitter Kyle Framer, leaving McMahon stranded.
The game was billed as a battle between two of the majors’ most promising young pitchers: Tigers 22-year-old rookie right-hander Jackson Jobe and Rockies 23-year-old righty Chase Dollander. Neither starter stuck around very long, and the game turned into a battle of the bullpens.
Rookie reliever Seth Halvorsen rescued the Rockies in the seventh. Detroit put two on against lefty Scott Alexander with a leadoff double by Gleyber Torres and a one-out walk by Riley Greene. Enter Halvorsen, who struck out the dangerous Torkelson, walked McKinstry to load the bases, and then struck out Dillon Dingler with a wicked 2-2 slider.
Right-hander Jake Bird relieved Dollander in the fourth inning and pitched three scoreless innings, struck out three, and allowed two hits. It was his seventh appearance of two scoreless innings this season. He whittled his ERA to 1.93.
Two big swings powered the Rockies early.
McMahon, emerging from the worst slump of his career, hit a 436-foot, two-run homer to center in the first inning to give Colorado a 2-0 lead. McMahon mashed Jobe’s 2-1 slider.
In the third, McMahon drew a leadoff walk and jogged home on Toglia’s moonshot homer to right off Jobe. Toglia’s fourth homer of the season put Colorado in front, 5-3.
Dollander blanked the Tigers for the first two innings, but his command went from sketchy to haywire in the third and fourth. The right-hander had to leave his last start early because of a bleeding, cracked fingernail on the middle finger of his pitching hand.
However, that was not the issue Wednesday night. Black said he believed Dollander was “falling out of his delivery early.”
“I would have to agree,” Dollander said. “Stuff happens. I’ll have to look at it, reevaluate and keep going forward. Just get a plan together for the next (start).”
Dollander walked Dingler to open the third, followed by a looping double down the left-field line by Trey Sweeny and a two-run single up the middle by Javier Baez. A single by Kerry Carpenter and a sacrifice fly by Torres tied the game, 3-3.
Dollander’s fourth inning was messy. He walked Zach McMinstry, plunked Dingler and walked Sweeny to pack the bases. Baez followed with a carbon-copy two-run single up the middle to put the Tigers ahead, 6-5.
Dollander’s six-run, five-hit, three-plus inning night left him with a 7.71 ERA after his first six big-league starts. He walked three and didn’t register any strikeouts for the first time in his career.
“I wouldn’t say I was discouraged,” Dollander said. “Definitely frustrated. I know that I’m capable of a lot more. It’s just about figuring out what went wrong and working on it. Simply put.”
Jobe pitched 3 2/3 innings, giving up six runs on eight hits, including the two homers. He walked one and fanned two.
The teams finish up their three-game series on Thursday with a traditional doubleheader.
