Sloppy defense, quiet bats cost Rockies against Reds
A sloppy sixth-inning defensively doomed the Colorado Rockies, who let an early lead slip away Friday and fell 4-1 in the first of three against the Cincinnati Reds.
Chris Nelson, a natural shortstop who played the position in the majors for the first time with Troy Tulowitzki out, put the Rockies up in the third inning with a solo home run to center. But Nelson was later part a rough sixth that turned into a four-run inning for the Reds.
Brandon Phillips led off the inning with a walk. After a groundout to second by Dave Sappelt for the first out, Joey Votto singled to right. Seth Smith, who started in left but moved to right after Carlos Gonzalez was ejected, threw wildly back to the infield to allow Sappelt to move to third. After recovering the baseball, Nelson tried to get Votto, who was trying to move up to second, but that throw went wild as well. That allowed Sappelt to score and tie the game at 1-1. Two more walks — one by starter Jhoulys Chacin and one by reliever Josh Roenicke — loaded the bases in front of a two-run single by Ryan Hanigan and an RBI single by Paul Janish. Three of the Reds’ eight hits and all three of their walks came in the sixth, the only inning in which they scored.
Chacin was charged with three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings.
The Rockies offense produced just six hits, two by Smith, who also stole a base. As a team, the Rockies left nine runners on base and were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
I gotta agree with what Prog said on the other thread. Cargo and JTracy get ejected after a heated argument and how does the rest of the team respond? They fall asleep. Bless their fireless hearts.
Getting thrown out of the game was my favorite Jim Tracy move of the year. Keep it up, JT! Your team needs you!