The Rockies’ misery index continued to climb Sunday afternoon as the offense’s spring hibernation slogged on in a 2-1 loss to the Mets at Coors Field.
Nothing was more emblematic of the Rockies’ woes than Trevor Story making the last out of the game while trying to steal second base. It took a perfect throw from catcher James McCann to nail Story.
The speedy all-star shortstop was simply doing what he could to spark a dormant offense that had been dominated by Mets right-hander Marcus Stroman and was facing a tough closer in Edwin Diaz.
“I thought I got a really good jump, and going back and looking at the tape, they kind of made a perfect play,” Story said. “I was trying to get into scoring position for Chuck (Charlie Blackmon) so he wouldn’t need to get (an extra-base hit). I’d do it again, for sure.”
Manager Bud Black concurred.
“We can’t sit back and wait,” Black said. “There are pitcher-catcher combinations that we look at prior to the series, that give us an advantage to run, and trigger our base-stealing capabilities.
“We felt, at that point, that taking a shot there against that combination would work in our favor, but McCann made a strong throw. And it was a bang-bang play.”
Stroman (3-0, 0.90 ERA) was super-sharp, pitching eight innings of three-hit baseball, striking out five and walking only one. He also made a sensational play to start the eighth. He broke off the mound and reached behind his back with his glove to snag Josh Fuentes’ grounder. Then Stroman threw off-balanced to first, with the ball rolling about the last 30 feet and into first baseman Pete Alonso’s glove, barely nipping Fuentes.
Sunday’s win clinched the three-game series for the Mets, who improved to 7-4. The Rockies’ record slipped to 4-12, its .250 winning percentage the worst in the majors. The Rockies have lost nine games by two or fewer runs, three more than any other team in the majors. Key hits that could have turned games around continue to elude them.
“Offensively, we haven’t hit our stride, as evidenced by our overall numbers, as a group, both with batting average (.221) and on-base percentage (.270),” Black said. “We feel that, with time, that will improve. But you have heard me say this before. We need to get six or seven guys getting hits or getting on base. So we need that turn at some point to be able to generate some runs.”
The shame of Sunday’s game was that Colorado wasted another strong start at home by right-hander Antonio Senzatela. He rebounded from a bad start at Los Angeles and did everything he could to set up a Rockies victory, allowing only one earned run over six innings, with no walks and four strikeouts. He induced 11 groundball outs.
“I was impressed today by his use of the changeup and his breaking ball was effective,” Black said. “And he had velocity to the fastball. All three pitches worked today. He was throwing the ball with authority in the zone and with conviction.”
The only inning in which the Mets solved Senzatela was the second when Pete Alonso led off with a single and scooted to third on Michael Conforto’s double to right-center. Jeff McNeil’s groundout to second scored Alonso.
Colorado’s defense has been one of its few strengths this season, but first baseman C.J. Cron let Senzatela down in the fourth. McNeil’s routine, two-out grounder went between Cron’s legs and under his glove, keeping the inning alive. J.D. Davis immediately punched a single to center to drive in a run and put the Mets in front, 2-0. That turned out to be the winning run.
Stroman, meanwhile, smothered Rockies hitters for the first six innings, allowing no runs and only one hit — a leadoff single by Raimel Tapia in the first. The heart of the Rockies’ order finally nicked Stroman for a run in the seventh, with Story ripping a double to right and scoring on Blackmon’s single. Stroman needed only 90 pitches (62 strikes) to maneuver his eight innings.
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April 19, 2021 at 05:02AM
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Despite Antonio Senzatela’s strong start, Rockies lose to Mets, fall to 4-12 on the season - The Denver Post
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