Well, that was a flop!
For the first six innings of this one, we were treated to an intense pitchers’ duel that saw Grant Holmes and Austin Gomber go toe-for-toe while they were out there. Then the seventh inning rolled around and the Rockies proceeded to pull away and eventually turn it into a 10-1 laugher over the Atlanta Braves.
I’m going to be completely honest with y’all: The first six innings of this game were about as dull as you could imagine a baseball game could be. With that being said, that’s actually a compliment to how locked in that both Grant Holmes and Austin Gomber were in this one. Gomber pitched five innings where he only gave up two hits and one walk while he was out there. Plain and simple, the Braves didn’t have a lot of anything going on while Gomber was on the mound and not much changed after he left the mound either. Only one runner even made it to second base while Gomber was out there, which tells you just how rough of a day Atlanta’s lineup had in this one.
Meanwhile, the Rockies spent the initial portion of this game ahead and they were able to get that run without even recording a hit. Ryan Ritter made it on base with one out in the third inning after Holmes pulled off the rare “feat” of committing two errors on one play. Holmes’ adventure ended with Ritter on third base and Braxton Fulford’s sacrifice fly put the Rockies ahead in this one.
The Braves didn’t respond until Gomber was gone from the game and Jake Bird was on the mound. Atlanta responded to being released from Gomber’s cage by smacking four straight singles — folks, that equals at least one run no matter when or how that happens and that was the case here for the Braves, though they’d have to wait until Marcell Ozuna’s single to get that run. Austin Riley’s single was the second in that sequence but Acuña got put out at home so the Braves would have to wait to tie the game. Atlanta went down in order following Ozuna’s RBI and this was a bittersweet moment in the contest — the missed opportunity to score more definitely hurt but these are the Rockies we’re talking about, here. Surely there’s more to come, right? Right?
Well, that ended up being true — for the Rockies, not for the Braves. Grant Holmes ended up staying out for the seventh inning and that was very likely one inning too many for Holmes on this day. Ryan McMahon didn’t exactly ambush Holmes but his homer off the second pitch that he saw from Holmes in the seventh certainly sent a jolt into the game as the Rockies edged out. back in front. That ended up being the winning run as the Rockies proceeded to run rampant in this frame. It was a shame too since Grant Holmes had a great day, particularly when it came to racking up a whopping 15 strikeouts.
Enyel De Los Santos inherited one baserunner and one out when he entered the game and once he left the game, there were two baserunners and one out while Colorado had extended their lead to 5-1. Old friend Orlando Arcia welcomed De Los Santos to the game with a single and Arcia’s single would be the second of six straight Rockies to reach base safely. José Ruiz entered the game after Jordan Beck’s double pushed it to 5-1 and Ruiz surrendered two more runs following a single and a disengagement violation, which is just such a depressing way to go down by six runs to a team that had won 13 games in two-and-a-half full months of baseball.
Anyways, Ruiz stayed in the game until he had gotten one out in the eighth inning. He left Aaron Bummer two baserunners to deal with and in true Aaron Bummer fashion, bad things happened once they put the ball in play against him. Braxton Fulford got a hold of a fastball that was high and inside and proceeded to shoot it opposite field so that it landed on the first-base line for a bases-clearing triple that brought us to the final score of 10-1 Rockies since the Braves were quiet to end the game as well.
The only real takeaway from this game (other than Grant Holmes turning into a strikeout machine) is that the Braves won the previous two games so they at least had ensured that they were going to come away from this matchup against the Rockies with a series win. They’ve won the season series as well, so at least the Braves can hang their hat on the fact that they didn’t drop a series to this truly awful version of the Rockies. With that being said, this was still a very rough one to sit through and that was before the Rockies pulled away to turn it into a blowout.
This lineup has the potential to make some serious noise on any given day at the ballpark but it doesn’t help when this team also has the potential to completely no-show on any given day at the ballpark. They’re perfectly inconsistent at the moment and it’ll have to get fixed and soon if they’re going to survive this upcoming stretch within the division.