Rockies manager Bud Black said Monday that he was confident in where Chad Bettis was, heath-wise and stuff-wise, as the right-hander returned to the majors from a finger blister that had sidelined him since July 3.
But Tuesday’s blowout at the hands of Pittsburgh showed Bettis — slotted back into the starting rotation in the wake of Antonio Senzatela‘s shoulder soreness — hadn’t quite shaken off the rust indicated by the stat line of his last rehab start, a four-run, six-inning outing last week for Triple-A Albuquerque.
BOX SCORE: Pirates 10, Rockies 2
The result was a 10-2 loss at Coors Field that was decided by two explosive Pirates innings, a four-run fourth and a five-run fifth, which turned the second game of the homestand into a prolonged snoozer.
“Chad, when he’s on, he hits the glove,” Black said. “I don’t think we saw the best of Chad today hitting the glove.”
Pittsburgh got on the board quickly in the first inning via Starling Marte’s 17th home run of the season to take a 1-0 lead, but Bettis put up zeros in the two innings after that as the clubs entered the fourth still separated by just one run.
But as Pirates right-hander Jameson Taillon cruised on his way to the first nine-inning complete game by an opponent at Coors Field since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2013, Bettis came undone in the fourth.
Josh Harrison started the bleeding in the inning with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0, and then Jordy Mercer hit a three-run homer 443 feet to center field to make it 5-0.
“I was really upset by those two walks in the fourth there that led to the home run by Mercer,” Bettis said. “Really, in those three at-bats, I didn’t execute the pitches that I wanted to.”
The tourniquet was only just being unraveled, however, after Black trotted Bettis back out for the fifth inning.
“The game wasn’t even halfway over yet, his pitch count was down and he threw a mistake pitch to Mercer — that was a back-breaker, no doubt,” Black said of the decision. “But down 5-0 after four, we have a chance to come back in that game. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the fifth, because we don’t have a crystal ball… (The thinking is) we send him back out, and hopefully he puts up a zero or two.”
But the results were less than ideal, as the right-hander surrendered three additional runs before being spelled by Jake McGee with two outs.
Before McGee could get the Rockies out of the frame, Harrison furthered the damage by hitting a two-run dinger to push Pittsburgh’s advantage to 10-0 and send many purple-clad fans immediately streaming for the exits.
Taillon then continued to work around traffic, as Colorado finished 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position while leaving seven runners stranded. One of the lone bright spots was Charlie Blackmon‘s 1,000th career hit, a single in the sixth.
“He had all his pitches working all night — a great running fastball going away from lefties and into right-handers at mid-90s, a great cutter with a slider and a good curveball,” Carlos Gonzalez said. “We were able to put up a lot of traffic, but pitched a really good game and he was still able to go the distance because he didn’t use a lot of pitches.”
The Colorado offense finally produced in the eighth, but Gonzalez’s two-RBI double in the frame was far from enough to get the Rockies (60-53) back into the ballgame.
“It’s a tough loss, but tomorrow we have an opportunity to win a series,” Gonzalez said.
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