For as hot as Colorado Rockies centerfielder Charlie Blackmon has been over the past week, his team has been equally cold. Blackmon homered twice on Sunday in a 7-6 loss to the Phillies, his seventh in as many days. Over that same stretch, Colorado has just one win.
There's "hot," and then there's @Chuck_Nazty.
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥https://t.co/lsQCUvmpKo
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 14, 2016
His five home runs in the three-game series against Philadelphia set a Rockies team record.
His second home run on Sunday was his 20th of the year, a new career high. In addition to his seven home runs over the past week, Blackmon had three doubles. He earned his 25th double of the year with this nifty slide that required an extra set of eyes to confirm.
Blackmon is on a nine game hitting streak, hammering out 20 hits in that time. For the month of August he’s hitting .434 with a 1.341 OPS. His seven home runs, three doubles, 18 hits, nine RBI and a stolen base should be more than enough to earn him National League Player of the Week.
He put a cherry on top defensively with this gem on Saturday night.
.@Chuck_Nazty has it covered. 💯 https://t.co/uM3eMKSCmp
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 14, 2016
His team, meanwhile, is in a tailspin. At 56-62, Colorado has dropped nine of it’s last 11 after being 54-53 on August 3.
Tyler Chatwood lasted just 4.0 innings against the Phillies on Sunday, surrendering six runs (four earned) on six hits. Chatwood had allowed just 10 earned runs on the road all season up to that point.
Between blown games and disappointing starts, Colorado’s pitching staff had one of its worst weeks of the season. The bullpen gave up leads in the seventh inning or later in three consecutive games against the Rangers to start the week. Gray had his second disappointing outing in a row to open the series on Friday, allowing seven runs (six earned) in just 4.1 innings. Tyler Anderson was ejected for throwing at a batter in the fourth inning Saturday. And Chatwood couldn’t stop the bleeding on Saturday.
Colorado struggled in the field on Sunday as well, committing four errors, including two by Nolan Arenado.
Things don’t get any easier on the Rockies as they head home licking their wounds. Colorado welcomes the Nationals and Cubs for three games apiece beginning Monday and Friday, respectively, with an off day Thursday.
Washington leads the NL East at 69-47, trailing only the Cubs for the best record in baseball (73-42). The Nationals are 7-3 over their last 10 games, the Cubs are 9-1 in that same span.
First pitch Monday is 6:40 p.m. at Coors Field.