Rockies give up 3-0 lead in 4-5 loss to Brewers

By: Ian Cerveny on Apr 07 2010 - 2:43pm

Milwaukee's Trevor Hoffman generated pop outs from Todd Helton & Brad Hawpe in the 9th to close out a 1-run win for the Brewers

: Image by San Diego Shooter via Flickr

The Colorado Rockies looked ready to assert themselves through much of a 3-run 1st Inning in Milwaukee on Wednesday.Â But Colorado stranded two runners in that inning, and missed opportunities became a common theme throughout the day.

Aaron Cook looked good enough in his 2010 debut, limiting damage and staying out of trouble until a 1-run 5th bled into a 2-run 6th.Â Randy Flores replaced Cook on the mound, and immediately gave up the second run of the inning on his third pitch.Â That run proved to be the game-winner.

Unfortunately, Colorado couldn’t catch up after giving up 3-0 and 4-1 leads.Â The rest of the Rockies bullpen held strong, especially Manny Corpas whose slider had the nasty bite low in the zone that has become typical of the Colorado setup man.

In the end, small fielding mistakes by the Rockies ballooned when the offense couldn’t come through.Â Colorado scored in the 1st & 3rd Innings, but couldn’t manufacture another run despite having a baserunner in every inning except the 9th.Â An unfortunate 9th Inning outcome considering the Brewers now trot the ancient Trevor Hoffman out as a sort of zombie closer these days.

The Rockies have a day off before making their Coors Field debut against the San Diego Padres on Friday afternoon.

This entry was posted by Ian Cerveny on Wednesday, April 7th, 2010 at 2:43 pm and is filed under Rockies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Tags: aaron cook, Colorado Rockies, Coors Field, Milwaukee Brewers, Randy Flores, San Diego Padres, Trevor Hoffman, United States

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http://www.prosportscolorado.com Jason Ackerman

Dang. I really thought the bullpen was going to be the shaky point in the first several weeks of the season… but at least today, the bullpen was fine.

The inability of the offense to finish the job by hitting with runners in scoring position will make this a very long season if they can’t improve. I’m confident the pitching will catch up, but an offense that jacks homers here and there but can’t play small ball is destined to drag a team down.

It looked like they had it going in the first inning – when a pitcher is struggling that bad, you need to finish him off. That game should have been over in the first. Davis was demoralized, and the Rocks had 2 on with no out and a 3 run lead. That should have been a 5+ run inning. Instead, a serviceable but anemic 3 runs. Cook should have had to shoulder the load of a close game at that point.

My final point – to be fair, the Brewers are a very good hitting team and should be giving pitching staffs trouble all year. But the Rockies shouldn’t have had to struggle like they did.
http://spacesbetween.spaces.live.com Ian Cerveny

Totally agree on all points. The Brewers are going to be good this year, but their pitching staff is not all that improved from the one we brutalized last season. No reason we couldn’t simply outscore them, and really we should have been able to snuff out their hope of catching up by the bottom of the 3rd.