The dog days of summer appear to be catching up to the Colorado Rockies as tempers boiled over in their 6-3 loss to the Phillies on Saturday. The Rockies dropped their second consecutive game in Philadelphia and their eighth in the last ten games.
The Phillies struck early when Maikel Franco took Rockies starter Tyler Anderson deep in the bottom of the first inning to jump out to a 3-0 lead.
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Anderson proceeded to put a fastball into the knee of Franco in his next plate appearance, leading off the bottom of the fourth inning. Franco didn’t take kindly to the gesture, nor did Anderson to Franco’s response.
Both benches emptied and Anderson was ejected, putting Colorado in the tough spot of going to their bullpen much earlier than anticipated. Manager Walt Weiss was also ejected shortly thereafter.
The Phillies stretched the lead to four runs before Colorado would battle back to within one in the sixth inning, only to give two more back in the seventh.
Colorado had the tying run at the plate for two batters in the form of Nolan Arenado and David Dahl in the ninth inning, but both struck out.
The Rockies fall to 56-61 as a result, five games back of Miami and St. Louis who are tied for the final Wild Card spot.
Tyler Chatwood tries to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday at 11:35 a.m. MDT.