Talk about a “rocky road.”
The Colorado Rockies lost to the Milwaukee Brewers 4-0 Friday night because they failed to hit the ball well, and failed to hit with runners in scoring position, going 0-7 with RISP.
The Rockies now trail 2-0 in the NLDS to the Brewers and Friday’s loss was the first time the Rockies have ever been shutout in the postseason.
The Rockies bats were again nowhere to be found on Friday as former Rockies’ pitcher Jhoulys Chacin dominated on the mound against his former team. While Chacin may have blanked the Rockies in his outing, Colorado missed some prime opportunities early in the game to establish a lead.
Nolan Areando hit a two-out single in the first inning which followed with a walk to Carlos Gonzalez. Trevor Story then struck out swinging, with the frustration at the plate continuing from Game 1 of the NLDS. The strikeout from Story was just the start of the Rockies hitting woes throughout the evening.
Rockies’ starting pitcher Tyler Anderson did his part for the club, hurling six innings of one-run baseball. The first score of the game for Milwaukee came in the bottom of the fourth inning where the Hernan Perez hit a ground-rule double to score Mike Moustakas who had reached earlier on a double to right center field.
Besides the fourth inning, Anderson was spectacular on the mound for Colorado, logging six innings allowing one run on six hits while striking out five batters.
There was frustration all across the board for the Rockies’ hitters as Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, and Carlos Gonzalez were all hitless with runners in scoring position.
The defining moment of the game for Colorado came in the seventh inning where the offense was unable to score a run with a runner on third and no outs.
Ian Desmond started the inning by reaching on an infield single, later advancing to third on a stolen base and overthrow from the Brewers. From there, catcher Chris Iannetta was unable to put the ball in play and struck out on three pitches. Frustrated with himself, Iannetta proceeded to snap his bat over his knee before returning to the dugout.
Chris Iannetta just broke his bat over his knee 😳 pic.twitter.com/BR5CStmFhF
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) October 5, 2018
Manager Bud Black then pinch hit Matt Holliday in place of Anderson, who mimicked Iannetta and struck out. With two outs and the top of the order up, Blackmon hit a hard line drive right at Brewers’ second basemen Travis Shaw to end the inning.
Rockies players have felt confident in their ability to get the offense sorted out in a timely fashion, but they looked worse Friday then they did in Game 1. This is a major issue being down 2-0 in series because now if the Rockies want to win this series, they will need to win both games in Colorado before winning in Milwaukee in a potential Game 5.
The Brewers added three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning following a walk to Christian Yelich and a string of hits off of Rockies’ relief pitchers Seung hwan Oh and Chris Rusin.
Colorado left a total of nine runners on base in their first-ever shutout playoff game.