A stone-faced Victor Vodnik stood in front of his locker and recapped the painful ninth inning.
The Rockies’ late-game reliever took note of a leadoff walk that haunted him, expressed frustration about the groundballs that found holes, and took responsibility for a poorly executed pitch that turned a significant Rockies’ victory into a stinging 10-8 defeat.
Leading the Padres 8-5 entering the ninth at Coors Field on Thursday afternoon, the Rockies were on the cusp of clinching the three-game series. But Vodnik walked Jackson Merrill, and then saw Manny Machado, Xander Bogaerts and Miguel Andujar rap out groundball singles.
Then Vodnik threw a first-pitch cutter to Gavin Sheets. Bang: a three-run 379-foot homer down the right-field line. Ecstasy to agony.
“On the Gavin Sheets homer, it was a pitch I didn’t execute,” said Vodnik, who was charged with his second loss and his second blown save as his ERA spiked to 7.59. “It was a backup cutter. The Padres did a good job of executing, and I got a bit unlucky on those groundballs, and I didn’t execute when I had to.”
It was the second time this season that Sheets crushed Colorado. On April 10 at Petco Park, Sheets hit a three-run, walk-off home run off Roberto Mejia to beat the Rockies, 5-2.
Wasted in Colorado’s defeat on Thursday was left fielder Mickey Moniak’s 4-for-5 performance that included two solo home runs. Adding oomph to the gut-punch loss was the injury suffered by starter Ryan Feltner.
Feltner pitched just two innings before being removed from the game because of right triceps tightness. Starting second baseman Willi Castro departed after three innings because of pain in the patella tendon in his right knee.
“We have been working on (the triceps) in the training room for the last few days, and it just got a little tight in the second inning, so we took precautions,” Feltner explained.
His anger was evident on the mound at the end of the second when he snapped his glove when he struck out Jake Cronenworth to end the inning.
“That wasn’t the exact moment (of the injury), but that was frustration there,” he said.
Feltner said that the concern of a major injury is “pretty low,” but added, “There is no prognosis right now.”
Castro said the decision to pull him from the game was precautionary and said he didn’t expect to miss much playing time.
Moniak, meanwhile, continues flashing star power. Ten years after he was the first player selected in the major league draft, he’s playing as if he belongs in the Midsummer Classic in Philadelphia in July.
After batting .270 and hitting 24 homers for the Rockies last season, he’s hitting .324 with a 1.097 OPS this season. He believes the Rockies are making strides, but couldn’t hide his disappointment in letting a win slip away.
“At the end of the day, the name of the game is to win. We weren’t able to get that done, but that’s baseball,” said the 27-year-old Moniak, who was selected in the first round by the Phillies in 2016 out of La Costa Canyon High School in Carlsbad, Calif.
“Vic has been huge for us this year, but he just had a tough day,” Moniak continued. “That’s how it goes sometimes. I have all the confidence in the world in that guy. As much as this one hurts, we have to move forward.”
The Rockies begin a six-game, seven-day road trip in New York on Friday when they play the Mets at Citi Field. Moniak expects the Rockies to rebound from Thursday’s loss.
“I think so,” he said. “It’s been a year so far, with a lot of highs and some lows. Now it’s just going to be about finding that consistent high and figuring out ways to win baseball games. As bad as this one sucked, we had a .500 homestand against two good teams (Dodgers and Padres), and we easily could have been above .500 on the homestand.”
Pitching probables
Friday: Rockies RHP Michael Lorenzen (1-2, 7.48) at Mets RHP Freddy Peralta (1-2, 4.05), 5:10 p.m.
Saturday: Rockies LHP Jose Quintana (0-2, 6.23) at Mets RHP Kodai Senga (0-3, 8.83), 2:10 p.m.
Sunday: Rockies TBD at Mets RHP Nolan McLean (1-1, 2.67)
TV: Rockies.TV
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