The Rockies once again fell to the Marlins in a one-run game. This one was marred by a lot of soft contact and weird breaks on both sides of the ball. But there were also some offensive highlights from TJ Rumfield and Ezequiel Tovar, who both his home runs early.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough and they came on the losing end of another close one.
However, maybe you can take some solace in this:
Michael Lorenzen had a solid outing
Michael Lorenzen made his Rockies debut today and it was an up-and-down outing. He ended up going 4.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. He didn’t walk any batters, but all three runs were scored by Liam Hicks. The first one came on a sacrifice fly in the third, and the other two on a two-run second-deck homer in the fifth right before Lorenzen was lifted.
Overall, Lorenzen did induce a lot of weak contact, but there were a lot of weird breaks and hops that led to hits (more on that later). But he also pitched his 1000th career inning today, which is quite the accomplishment!
TJ Rumfield, come on down!
Rumfield made quite the impression during spring training, winning both the first base job outright and the Abby Greer Award for spring training MVP. And he has not yet shown signs of slowing down.
Yesterday, Rumfield made his MLB debut and recorded his first MLB hit in the ninth inning on a broken bat single. Today, he one-upped himself by hitting not only his own first-career home run in the second inning, but the Rockies’ first homer of the season:
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And he also made sure to show his versatility by making an outstanding defensive play the very next inning.
Tovar Time!
Tovar was feeling a little overshadowed, so he hit his own two-run home run in his next at-bat in the fourth to not only put the Rockies back on top of the Marlins, but also to give them a little insurance:
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Good, bad and weird breaks
The fourth inning got a little weird for the Rockies. First, Griffin Conine hit a single that bounced off the corner of second base and over Tovar’s head into center field. Then, two batters later, Graham Pauley singled after a desperation swing didn’t quite pull it foul. It bounced just in front of the third base bag, and Kyle Karros didn’t have a chance. Luckily, though, Lorenzen struck out Jakob Marsee to end the threat and complete that 1000th inning.
That said, the Rockies got a good break in the fifth when Edouard Julien hit a double — his first Rockies hit — and then Pérez attempted to pick him off, only to throw it to the right of the second baseman and into center field. Julien advanced to third, but unfortunately Hunter Goodman hit a fly ball to left to end the threat.
In the seventh, Karros hit a line drive to the third baseman. Luckily, it hit the ground first so he was able to leg it out and was marked safe at first, but there was a force at second to get pinch runner Ryan Ritter. And then Julien struck out to end the inning.
Ye Olde 7-6-3 double play
And in the bottom half of the inning, they turned a hugely unorthodox 7-6-3 double play. Augustín Ramírez had walked and Hicks hit a high fly ball to left, but then Ramírez attempted to steal second and overran the bag. And because of that, Tovar was able to pick him off on his way back to first.
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Unfortunately, though, the dagger came in the eighth on another single by Owen Caissie, who went 3-for-4 with the RBI to put the Marlins up 4-3. The rest, as they say, is history.
Up Next
The Rockies will look to avoid the sweep yesterday in South Beach before they head north of the border to take on the reigning AL-champion Toronto Blue Jays. José Quintana will face off against Max Miller.
First pitch is at 11:40am MT. See you then!
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