Bad baseball continues for Colorado as the Rockies fall to the Nationals 13-3

Folks in the District of Columbia were not moved by the opportunity to see two of the National League’s struggling teams on a Monday night, as the Colorado Rockies (50-80) and the Washington Nationals (61-71) kicked off their four-game series in front of a sparse crowd of 12,105. Those that did show up got to witness an offensive outburst for the hometown team.

The game started with a strong battle between starters Ryan Feltner and Cade Cavalli. Then — stop me if you’ve heard this before — one big inning brought the Rockies down. Colorado couldn’t claw back into it after a fifth inning full of Nationals hits, Rockies errors, and an Ezequiel Tovar injury that erased their early lead.

The Rockies logged their 50th win back on August 16th. The 51st has proven to be elusive as Colorado’s losing streak climbs to a season-high seven straight losses.

A pitcher’s duel through the first three frames

Cavalli had built a good bit of momentum through his last few starts. He carried that into the early part of today’s game. After giving up a leadoff single to Jake McCarthy, Cavalli got the next three batters out with balls in play.

The Nationals followed suit and stranded runners of their own in the first. Feltner walked his first batter faced in CJ Abrams, but came right back to strike out Abimelec Ortiz, getting him to chase a changeup outside. Abrams threatened by stealing second before Feltner walked Dylan Crews. The Nationals couldn’t do anything from there, as a Daylen Lile line out and a Brady House grounder left runners on first and second.

Feltner started the second inning with another walk to Kelbert Ruiz. Then he flipped the switch in a big way after his early struggles. With Ruiz on first, he sat down the next six batters faced. He logged four strikeouts across those six.

Of note was a successful challenge by Brett Sullivan in the bottom of the second to turn a ball into a strike that would ring up Jorbit Vivas.

The Rockies went down 1-2-3 in the second and couldn’t muster much in the third, despite an Ezequiel Tovar double giving them a shot.

Drawing first blood, Big Willi Style

Heading into the fourth, Cavalli reached 20 consecutive innings without surrendering a run. That streak came to a quick end when Willi Castro took a 96 MPH fastball in the middle of the zone deep to right field.

Castro donned the purple jacked and launched the Rockies to a 1-0 lead. Cavalli seemed a little rattled in the immediate aftermath, giving up a single to TJ Rumfield next and then walking Troy Johnston before a mound visit would calm him down.

With runners on first and second and no outs, the Rockies faltered and Cavalli responded by getting three quick outs (including two Ks) to escape the inning without further damage.

Despite some contact, the Nats’ bats kept quiet through the fourth inning. Lile and House grounded out, before a Ruiz fly ball to right ended the inning.

A rollercoaster fifth inning swings the game

Good news, the Rockies started the fifth in a big way. Tovar, party of one?

Another solo home run gave them a 2-0 lead as Tovar followed up his third inning double with a 416-foot shot to center.

Bad news, the Rockies ended the fifth in an uglier way. Feltner had a no-hitter going through four innings of work. In the blink of an eye, the hits jumped from zero to five. When all was said and done, several sloppy plays later, the Rockies two-run lead turned into a three-run deficit.

It all started when Jacob Young hit a soft line drive towards the gap. Tovar tried to make a diving grab to stop the ball and rolled over on his wrist. He was shaken up but stayed in the game (at least initially).

The bad news snowballed from there. Vivas singled to advance Young. Nasim Nuñez dropped a sacrifice bunt, but a bad throw by Castro got by Connor Norby to score both baserunners and tie the game. Next, an Abrams double brought Nuñez home.

It keeps going…

Abrams stole third, which turned into a run on an Ortiz grounder, making it 4-2 Nats. Lile came to the plate and doubled. Lile would try to join the steals club and take third. Sullivan tried to make the throw, but another throwing error would end up scoring Lile, as the ball ricocheted off of House’s bat and got away.

House then doubled, but the Rockies got Ruiz to line out to end the action at 5-2.

An unceremonious end to the pitcher’s duel

The Rockies went down 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth, unable to chip away at the lead.

The Nationals bats, on the other hand, were officially awake. The bad news kept pouring in for Colorado, both in terms of the score and personnel. Tovar was no longer able to play through his injury and was replaced by Ryan Ritter to start the sixth.

What was once a battle between Feltner and Cavalli continued to grow more lopsided. Vivas singled, Nuñez walked, and Feltner’s day ended with two on and two outs after 103 pitches (one shy of his career high). Feltner’s line for the day was 5.2 innings pitched, seven runs (five earned) on six hits, with six strikeouts and four walks.

Juan Mejia entered in relief of Feltner, walked Ortiz to load the bases, and walked a run in. He then gave up a single to make things 8-2 Nationals. The early no-hitter was nothing more than a distant memory.

Cavalli was replaced by Erik Tolman to begin the seventh. Cavalli ended his day in line for his seventh win in eight games at 6.0 innings pitched with five hits and two earned runs, seven strikeouts, and one walk.

A major league debut amidst the chaos

Yesterday, the Rockies announced moves to place Kyle Freeland on the 15-day injured list and select the contract of Blake Adams. Adams, the right-handed pitcher drafted by the Rockies in 2022, made his MLB debut, entering in relief in the bottom of the seventh.

In 17 appearances (two starts) with the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes, he was 2-5 with an 8.10 ERA across 50 innings.

Unfortunately, he got his “welcome to the big leagues” moment and gave up a single to his first batter faced in Ruiz. Familiar names continued to go off for the Nats, as Young connected for a double, followed by a Vivas single that scored both Ruiz and Young to make the game 10-2.

Adams started the eighth, but it wasn’t pretty. He allowed a leadoff single followed by a walk. Lile capitalized with a three-run dinger. 13-3 Nats (following a Norby RBI single for the Rockies in the top of the inning).

Adams was given a chance to stay in and walked House before being pulled for a Troy Johnston pitching appearance. His debut line was one inning of work with five runs on five hits.

Final Thoughts

The Rockies started the night in promising fashion, chipping away at a strong starter in Cade Cavalli. It felt for a moment like they might shake the bad baseball that has caused losses to pile up this month.

Unfortunately, one rough play turned into a few batters that got away which led to a bad inning which spiraled into 13 runs and a game that got away.

Manager Warren Schaeffer pointed to the defensive miscues that sparked the loss: “We gotta take care of the baseball better than that. That was an inning that got out of control. This is the big leagues. We have to play better than that.”

This falls into the column of “when it rains, it pours” soul-crushing losses that the Rockies have been susceptible to this season.

Up Next

The Rockies and Nats are back at it for another 4:45 p.m. MT first pitch on Tuesday night.

Along with the Blake Adams roster move, the Rockies were expected to call up right-handed pitcher Mason Adams who was acquired in the Brenton Doyle trade with the Chicago White Sox.

Schaeffer confirmed that Mason Adams will make his MLB debut with a start tomorrow. Since being acquired by Colorado, Adams has a 2.08 ERA in three starts with Albuquerque.

Southpaw Andrew Alvarez will start for the Nationals. Through 19 games (including 11 starts), Alvarez is 2-5 with a 3.60 ERA, a 1.338 WHIP, and 74 strikeouts.

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