The dog days of summer have been in full effect as of late with the Rockies only having won a single series in the month of August coming into this three game set vs. the Braves. The stars had aligned for the Rockies to take the series (their first in Atlanta since 2005) as the Braves came into the series on a 7 game losing streak. Both teams have no playoff plans come this year, but with what many have said to be a strong draft class coming in 2016 the two teams do have a race going on. Even after the series win the Rockies stand 2 1/2 games “up” on the Braves for a higher draft pick!
Game 1: Rockies 3 Braves 5
In the series opener both teams ran out top of the rotation starters, both hoping this could be the game to end their respective losing streaks. Julio Teheran has had a below average season given his past success and talent but has been very dominant at home this season, sporting a 2.55 ERA at home while posting an abysmal 6.32 ERA on the road The Rockies started out the road trip with a perfect start when Georgia boy Charlie Blackmon hit a leadoff homer off of Teheran into a not so packed stadium.
The lead was short-lived however as Johnny Gomes belted a two-run home run off of Jorge de la Rosa in the bottom of the first. The home run derby continued in top of the second when Ben Paulsen launched a solo homer of his own but Teheran settled in after this, returning to his hot home ways.
Carlos Gonzalez made a very nice catch to keep the game tied at 2 in the third inning but then the Rockies had a big scare in the fifth inning when Cargo was pulled due to a right knee injury.
The Rockies were finally able to chase Teheran in the 8th inning to face the Braves struggling bullpen and has two men on when Brandon Barnes laced a single to left that could have brought the Rockies within a run. However Michael Bourn made a perfect throw to gun down Charlie Blackmon at the plate and the game remained 5-3 heading into the 9th. The Rockies went on to drop the first game of the three game set in a game sadly seen by only 13,000 fans.
Game 2: Rockies 5 Braves 1
The Rockies struck first yet again in game two thanks to back to back singles by DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon followed by a fielding error by Atlanta’s third baseman Adonis Garcia. Ben Paulsen followed with a sacrifice fly to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead to welcome back Chad Bettis to the mound. Bettis hadn’t pitched for over a month but looked very sharp in his return striking out 4, while giving up just 5 hits on 88 pitches. Bettis continued his nice return at the plate in the second inning when he hit a single, his first hit after starting his career 0-33.
The baseball. CONGRATULATIONS, once again, to @cbettis35 on his 1st big league hit! pic.twitter.com/LZUmshkq4q
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 26, 2015
In the fourth inning Adonis Garcia made his second error of the game which allowed DJ to step up to the plate with two men on. DJ proceeded to line a single to plate the two runners increasing the lead to 4-0, with all 4 runs uncharged to the Braves unlucky pitcher Mike Foltynewicz. Bettis handed the ball over to the very shaky bullpen of late after tossing 5 innings. Tommy Kahnle had some struggles while he was out there, allowing 4 walks in an inning but he and the rest of the bullpen held the Braves scoreless over the final four innings.
Game 3: Rockies 6 Braves 3
In search of the elusive series win, the Rockies sent Yohan Flande to the bump to oppose the Braves best pitcher and MLB’s unluckiest pitcher.
Shelby Miller‘s 18-start winless streak is officially insane. Had about the same ERA in the streak (3.24) as Chris Sale‘s this year (3.20) — Jayson Stark (@jaysonst) August 27, 2015
Miller got off to an excellent start allowing no runs through his first 6 innings. The Braves spotted him 3 runs during those 6 innings, two of which off of back to back home runs from Johnny Gomes and Adonis Garcia. The Rockies starter Flande had a decent outing for how much he struggled to get through his 5 innings of work. Flande allowed 5 walks and 6 hits yet limited the damage to 3 runs keeping the Rockies in the game for the later innings.
Shelby Miller came back out in the 7th to preserve his lead and finally break the ridiculous streak that Jayson Stark tweeted above. However, he allowed 5 hits during the inning resulting in 4 runs. The major blow during the inning came off of a Jose Reyes triple which gave the Rockies their first lead of the game and set them up to potentially take the series. Reyes Triple The Rockies chased Miller after this turning the game to a test of two of the major leagues worst bullpens. The Rockies for the second straight night were able to post 4 shutout innings in relief to give them a 6-3 win after Brandon Barnes added 2 insurance runs in the 8th. Who knows when the next series win might come so lets live this one up and celebrate that we are still in line to pick ahead of the Braves in the draft and maybe take another Georgia boy away from them!
Links:
Things have become quite bleak for the Rockies this season on the field but who doesn’t love a good piece on the purple and black jerseys and this article at RoxPile is a great read. Also check out our earlier piece on Jersey Confidence
Also, looking towards the offseason two articles talking trades came out this past week.
Here is one take on the Troy Tulowitzki trade, pointing out how Matt Gross believes the Rockies failed in getting a significant enough return for Tulo.
Contrastingly, I wrote a piece using a very similar methodology back in July and based off of my calculations I saw the Tulo trade as a win for the Rockies.
Lastly, our own Ryan Hammon wrote a fantastic article on what the Rockies should look to do with the disgruntled Jose Reyes.
Whats Next:
Colorado Rockies Record: 51-74
NL West: 5th, 18 GB of the Dodgers
Games Remaining: 37
Next Series: @ Pittsburg Pirates
Friday August 28 505 MST Jon Gray (0-0 5.94 ERA) vs Francisco Liriano (9-6 3.23 ERA)
Saturday August 29 505 MST Chris Rusin (4-6 4.97 ERA) vs J.A. Happ (6-7 4.21 ERA)
Sunday August 30 1135 MST Jorge de la Rosa (7-6 4.61 ERA) vs Charlie Morton (8-5 4.20 ERA)
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