The Rockies held scoreless for the first time in a three-game series
The Colorado Rockies couldn’t be getting out of San Diego soon enough. A difficult first two games left the team with some determination to muster any sort of offense after going scoreless through 18 innings.
Unfortunately, all they could muster was two hits as they were shut out for the third straight game, falling 6-0 to the Padres.
Freeland’s Foibled First Inning
The Rockies had hoped that Kyle Freeland could tap into his strong start and throw out another gem for a team that desperately needed it. With a virtually non-existent offense, the margin for error is slim for the Rockies pitching staff and Freeland ran into trouble early.
After striking out Fernando Tatis Jr. to start the game, Luis Arraez laced a single to center field followed by a walk to Manny Machado, the first walk of the season allowed by Freeland. He then got Xander Bogaerts to fly out for the second out, putting the Rockies in a good position to get out of the inning.
Then the wheels fell off.
Back-to-back singles from Oscar Gonzalez and Yuli Gurriel quickly made it a 2-0 ballgame in favor of San Diego. Then, former Rockies Jose Iglesias knocked a double to center field to make it a 4-0 game before Brandon Lockridge struck out to end the inning.
Freeland settled in better after the first and navigated some traffic, allowing one run in the fourth inning. On the day he went five innings, allowing five runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and two walks. The one bad inning has been a thorn in the Rockies’ side and it proved to be the case again for Freeland.
King of the Hill
Once again, outside of the first inning, Freeland pitched well enough. The problem is that the Rockies offense has been abysmal in the series and Michael King put up a career start for the Padres.
The right-hander cruised through the lineup, carrying a perfect game to the fifth inning before Michael Toglia tallied the Rockies’ first hit of the game. He ended up tossing the complete game shutout, giving up two hits and a walk with eight strikeouts on 110 pitches. He pounded the zone and induced plenty of weak contact when the Rockies did hit the ball. He faced 29 batters, threw 69 strikes, and induced four groundouts and eight flyouts.
Bats M.I.A
Three consecutive shutouts were historical in all the wrong ways as the Rockies had no answers for Padres pitching. They managed just nine hits in the series and had 12 total base runners. They have the least amount of runs scored in baseball and have been left with a lot of soul-searching to do.
Per Baseball Reference, the Rockies are the third team in the modern era of MLB history to score zero runs, have fewer than 10 hits, and strike out at least 30 times in over three games.
The last time the Rockies went 22-plus straight innings without scoring was April 10-14 in 2021 (26 innings). The record is 30 innings back in 2010 and they appeared poised to break that record unless they hit the ground running in the first couple of innings in Los Angeles.
The Rockies will need to find some answers because they aren’t exactly hitting at home or the road.
Up Next
The Rockies now head to Los Angeles for their first match-up against the fearsome Dodgers. Antonio Senzatela will take the pill for the Rockies as they face off against Dustin May for the Dodgers.
First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. MDT.
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