Same Old, Same Old In Colorado Rockies Loss Friday Night To The Pittsburgh Pirates
By Andrew Dill
As if Colorado Rockies fans haven’t endured enough losing during the first-half of the season, Friday night was a prime example of how they continue to lose games due to a bad bullpen and terrible coaching.
Walt Weiss made a terrible decision in the eight inning of a tie game, 2-2. He brought in the veteran reliever Matt Belisle who has struggled mightily — You can blame Jim Tracy for the overuse concerning Belisle and the 75-pitch limit for starters issued by Dan O’Dowd and Bill Geivett. Belisle gave up two consecutive singles in the eighth to Neil Walker and Gaby Sanchez, bringing up Travis Snider. Snider would rope a double to right, scoring Walker to give the Bucs a 3-2 lead.
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Weiss would then elect to go with flamethrower Tommy Kahnle who should have been inserted in the ballgame instead of Belisle. Kahnle cleaned up Belisle’s mess but gave up a sacrifice-fly to Josh Harrison — which was issued as an earned run to Matt Belisle who now holds a record of 2-5 this season with a balmy 5.26 ERA.
If you want to contend in the Major Leagues, you need to find a way and grind out games like we saw tonight from the Pirates. Jorge De La Rosa did a fantastic job keeping the Rockies in the game, going six strong innings, giving up one run on fourth hits, walking three and striking out two.
Colorado isn’t known for their offense on the road as they failed to capitalize early. With one out in the first, Troy Tulowitzki walked to load the bases for Nolan Arenado. Arenado would make the mistake as he swung on a 3-1 pitch that jammed him, grounding into a 5-4-3 double play to end the inning.
Colorado continues to find ways to lose and it isn’t pretty. The inconsistency hitting with runner’s in scoring position, bullpen, and coaching have derailed the hopes of a contending team in 2014. Colorado, starting with the front office, has to make chances and quick if they want to restore faith in their fan base.