Athletics 7, Rockies 4: Early highlights not enough to prevent A’s comeback

An early lead and triple play couldn’t counter excessive walks and timely hitting by the A’s

For just the second time since 2005, the Colorado Rockies have begun the season 1-7 following their 7-4 loss to the Athletics Saturday night in the second game of their first series at home. It was their sixth consecutive loss as the offense remained unproductive and pitching faltered once again.

Welcome Home Germán

For the first time since April 10, 2023, Germán Márquez made his way to the mound to make a start at Coors Field. It’s been some time since fans were able to cheer for Márquez at home because of the injuries and hopes were high that he could replicate the dominance he displayed in Philadelphia during his last outing.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the homecoming Márquez was hoping for.

Things got off to a strong start early with a 1-2-3 top of the first that included two of Márquez’s three strikeouts. However, it was quite evident that Márquez didn’t exactly have his best stuff as the game progressed. Command was a glaring flaw in his performance as he tied a career-high in walks by issuing six free passes. He threw 89 pitches in his 5+ innings of work, with only 48 being thrown for strikes. Missing notably was his knuckle-curve usage which had just a 25% strike rate when he did throw it.

Márquez scattered five hits and was bailed out by some key infield defense (more on that in a second) but the cracks started to show in the fourth inning.

Lawrence Butler led off the inning with a single and moved up to second base on a ground ball by Brent Rooker. In the following at-bat, Márquez delivered a wild pitch that was blocked by Hunter Goodman behind the plate. As the ball skipped away Butler took off for second and came home to score after Goodman gathered the ball and delivered an off-line throw into left field. Márquez eventually escaped the inning after a couple of walks.

He would get through the fifth without trouble but a pair of walks to lead off the sixth followed by an RBI double from Tyler Soderstrom would make it a 3-2 ball game in favor of the Rockies and chase Márquez from the game.

Those two runs would then come in to score off of reliever Jimmy Herget giving the A’s a 4-3 lead and sticking Márquez with the loss. It’s often said walks will haunt you and Márquez learned once again how true that is.

Triple Play Action

Now, as for that defense that helped bail Márquez out a few times. The Rockies delivered a highlight play defensively with something they hadn’t done since 2015.

Shea Langeliers led the inning off with a walk. Soderstom than a hit a ball to second base that was scooped up by Kyle Farmer and thrown to first. The Rockies challenged the initial safe call at first on the bang-bang play but after further review the call on field stood.

With two on and nobody out, Márquez induced a ground ball to third off the bat of Jacob Wilson. Ryan McMahon stepped on third and fired the ball over to Farmer at second who made a quick relay over to Michael Toglia at first to complete the triple play.

It was the first triple play by the team since September 1, 2015, and just the fifth time the organization has turned a triple play.

The Good News and the Bad News at the Plate

The Rockies offense was able to strike first offensively in the second inning when Farmer doubled to center field with two outs for his third double of the season. Sean Bouchard then followed it up with a two-run home run to left field to give the Rockies an early 2-0 lead.

The following inning the Rockies managed to load the bases after Brenton Doyle led off with a single, Ezequiel Tovar hit his second double of the year, and McMahon walked. However, Goodman grounded into a 6-4-3 double play that did score Doyle to put them up 3-0 but nixed a prime scoring situation for the Rockies.

The Rockies had two total baserunners after that third inning until McMahon hit his first home run of the year in the eighth, an opposite-field shot to left. Kris Bryant would then send a two-out single through the hole into the left followed by a walk to Toglia. Farmer would loft a ball high and deep to the the gap in right field that Butler would chase down to end the inning.

That would be the extent of the Rockies offense, however. They went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded six batters.

A significant improvement was the fact the Rockies did strike out less than 10 times for just the second time this season with five strikeouts and had three walks in the game. What didn’t help is that the Rockies had nine groundouts in the game.

I Prefer Home Depot

JP Sears was excellent on the mound for the A’s despite the three runs allowed. Following that third inning Sears locked in and ended up going 6 ¹⁄₃ innings, giving up three runs on six hits with two strikeouts against two walks.

The A’s got after Márquez in that sixth inning and stung reliever Scott Alexander for three runs in the seventh after Rooker hit a solo home run followed by a two-run home run from Langeliers. The A’s have now hit 1+ home runs in each of their first nine games, the longest season-opening streak in team history.

Up Next

Buckle up Rockies fans, because right-hander Chase Dollander will be making his major league debut in the series finale against the A’s! It might be one of the most anticipated prospect debuts in franchise history and hopefully the start of an impactful career in Colorado.

The A’s send 23-year-old right-hander Joey Estes to the mound. First pitch is at 1:10 pm MT.

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