The 2026 Rockies aren’t making a great leap forward. Baby steps seem more likely.
Monday night, in a 12-3 loss to the Dodgers at Coors Field, they stumbled over some familiar obstacles. Namely, ineffective starting pitching, sloppy defense, and a lack of clutch hits.
Plus, Los Angeles third baseman Max Muncy punished Rockies pitching, as he did throughout the series, by hitting two home runs in a 4-for-4 performance.
All of that cost the Rockies a chance to win their first series from the Dodgers since June 27-29, 2022. Instead, they had to settle for a split of the four-game set.
“It wasn’t the cleanest game, and we didn’t play great defense, which was uncharacteristic for us,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It was one to forget.”
Colorado, fueled by two straight wins over Los Angeles, came out of the gate hot. Jordan Beck led off with a double off lefty Justin Wrobleski, and Brenton Doyle immediately drove Beck home with a double of his own.
Beck, who’s received irregular playing time this season, made the most of his opportunity, hitting 3 for 4 and boosting his average from .122 to .178.
But the first inning was the Rockies’ high-water mark. They could never really solve Wrobleski, who bobbed and weaved his way through seven innings. Wrobleski gave up eight hits and struck out only three, but didn’t walk any and was never stressed.
Wrobleski became the first Dodgers starter to go at least seven innings and allow one or fewer runs with no walks in back-to-back starts since Max Scherzer in 2021.
“He was just attacking the strike zone,” Schaeffer said. “But I don’t think we took bad at-bats tonight. According to my calculations, we hit 15 balls hard tonight, which is a lot of hard-hit balls. I thought we pushed our offensive approach forward again tonight, we just didn’t get the results.”
Colorado did get a big fly in the eighth when rookie first baseman TJ Rumfield hit a 440-foot solo homer into the second deck in right field off of reliever Edgardo Henriquez. It was Rumfield’s third homer of the season.
In the second inning, Muncy and Miguel Rojas launched back-to-back solo home runs off Rockies starter Jose Quintana, who was making his first start at Coors since Aug. 10, 2022, when he pitched for St. Louis. The best that can be said of Quintana’s performance on Monday night was that he saved the bullpen some gas by pitching five-plus innings.
The veteran lefty gave up six runs (four earned) on eight hits. He struck out one and walked one. He also committed a fielding error and balked in a run in the fourth while pitching to Shohei Ohtani.
“It felt better today … and my mechanics were better. If I keep throwing that way, it will give us a better chance to win,” said Quintana, now 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA after three starts. He missed time because of a hamstring strain early in the season.
Added Schaeffer: “I thought he battled, but he got hurt when he got behind in counts.”
Colorado was charged with three errors. In addition to Quintana’s error (he failed to catch the ball when covering first base), third baseman Eric Karros misplayed Will Smith’s slow grounder in the third, allowing Ohtani to score from second base, and reliever Tanner Gordon muffed Rojas’ bunt in the sixth, allowing Andy Pages to score.
Gordon, working in long relief, pitched four innings and was blasted for six runs on seven hits, including giving up a solo home run to Dalton Rushing in Los Angeles’ two-run eighth, then a solo home run to Muncy, as well as a two-run homer to Rushing in the ninth. Muncy batted .588 (10 for 17) with one double, four home runs, and five RBIs during the four-game series.
Pitching probables
Tuesday: Padres RHP Randy Vasquez (1-0, 2.49 ERA) at Rockies TBD (opener), 6:40 p.m.
Wednesday: Padres RHP Walker Buehler (1-1-, 4.58) at Rockies RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (1-1, 3.92), 6:40 p.m.
Thursday: Padres RHP Matt Waldron (0-1, 14.73) at Rockies TBD, 1:10 p.m.
TV: Rockies.TV
Radio: 850 AM & 94.1 FM
