The Rockies are limping toward the fall finish line, and it ain’t a pretty sight.
Wednesday night at Coors Field, they fell behind the Giants, rallied to take a brief lead, and then saw another game slip away. Behind Matt Chapman’s two-homer, four-RBI night, San Francisco won 10-8 to complete the three-game sweep.
The Rockies, as is their custom, rallied in the ninth, scoring three runs on a sacrifice fly by Ezequiel Tovar and a two-run double by Hunter Goodman. Ryan Walker struck out Jordan Beck to write another chapter in Colorado’s too-little, too-late saga.
“I feel like we made a nice run and showed that we aren’t going to give at-bats away,” Goodman said following another Rockies’ moral victory that doesn’t count in a major league boxscore. “When we play here, I don’t think any lead is really safe.”
The Rockies, owners of 101 losses, are 1-5 on the current homestand and have lost 11 of their last 13 games. Simply put, the Giants own the Rockies, going 56-18 against them since the start of the 2021 season.
Plus, the Rockies are giving up home runs by the bushel at Coors Field. With nine home games remaining, they have served up 117 homers, the most since giving up 144 in 2019, the year of the “juiced baseball.”
Chapman, who drew a one-game suspension for shoving Rockies starter Kyle Freeland in Tuesday’s scuffle, made a statement with his bat. He led off the second inning, ambushing starter German Marquez’s first-pitch, 93.5 mph fastball, sending it 450 feet and into the forest beyond center field, giving the Giants a 1-0 lead. Chapman is appealing his suspension and was allowed to play Wednesday night.
The red-hot Giants, winners of 10 of their last 11 games, reclaimed the lead with a five-run sixth, in which Chapman launched a three-run, 423-foot homer off reliever Juan Mejia. San Francisco’s rally began when Casey Schmitt and Luis Matos drew walks off reliever Luis Peralta, and then cashed in with RBI singles by Patrick Bailey and Heliot Ramos.
Interim manager Warren Schaeffer acknowledged that home runs have hurt his club, but also noted that Mejia has been almost bulletproof against the longball.
“Nobody likes to give up homers,” Schaeffer said. “Tonight, Juan gave up two of them, right? Juan hasn’t given up a homer in a long, long time. It’s going to happen, but you don’t like to see homers, you like to see progress.”
Before allowing the three-run blast to Chapman, Mejia had not allowed a home run in 33 consecutive relief outings, the longest streak by a Rockies reliever since Justin Lawrence’s 37-game stretch April 16-July 23, 2023.
The best that can be said for Marquez is that he kept his team in the game and saved the overtaxed bullpen some work. The Giants punched out four runs on eight hits against the right-hander over five innings. Marquez walked three and struck out two as his ERA climbed to 6.19.
San Francisco added three runs in the third on five hits and two walks, taking a 4-0 lead. Marquez was on the ropes, but he pitched a one-two-three fourth inning and escaped a jam in the fifth.
“He gave us five innings … he battled and wiggled his way through the fifth inning with two guys on base and one out and did a nice job keeping them to a zero there and keeping us in the game,” Schaeffer said.
The Giants have had Marquez’s number for a long time. In 19 career starts against them, he’s 5-11 with a 6.82 ERA.
Giants lefty Robbie Ray dominated the Rockies early, throwing three no-hit innings and striking out five of the first nine batters he faced. Brenton Doyle’s RBI single got Colorado on the scoreboard in the fourth. The Rockies ripped Ray for four runs on four hits in the fifth to take a short-lived 5-4 lead.
Ray was visibly upset when home-plate umpire Dan Bellino missed an obvious called third strike on Tyler Freeman for what should have been the third out. Instead, Freeman singled in a run, Ezequiel Tovar walked, Goodman rapped an RBI single to left, and Beck whistled a two-run single into center field.
But, in keeping with the theme of their 2025 season, the Rockies coughed up their lead in a hurry.
Drew Gilbert hit a leadoff homer off Mejia in the seventh to add to the Giants’ remarkable home run barrage. The Giants, who hit four homers Tuesday night, have now hit a home run in 17 consecutive games, setting the longest streak of the San Francisco era (since 1958).
The Rockies are off on Thursday before opening a three-game series against the Padres at Coors Field. The Padres are trying to catch the Dodgers for the lead in the National League West.
Pitching probables
The Rockies are off on Thursday
Friday: Padres RHP Nick Pivetta (13-4, 2.84 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (3-14, 5.41), 6:40 p.m.
Saturday: Padres TBA at Rockies RHP Tanner Gordon (5-5, 6.07), 6:10 p.m.
Sunday: Padres RHP Dylan Cease (6-11, 4.81) at Rockies RHP Chase Dollander (2-12, 6.77), 1:10 p.m.
