This game had all the makings of a prototypical 2026 Colorado Rockies outing. To their credit, they held their own against one of the league’s best teams in the Milwaukee Brewers. Colorado was in the mix early and found a way to rally late, but that middle portion is what did them in. The Rockies mustered some offense, but just in streaks. By the time they were fighting back, they were trying to make up too many runs thanks to their starting pitching trailing off and their bullpen letting things get away. After keeping things neck-and-neck through the first few innings, the Rockies fell behind 8-2 before tacking on a few more in an 8-5 loss.
Gasser hits the gas against the Rockies offense
The Colorado offense struggled early, unable to muster much the first time through the lineup. Robert Gasser kept the Rockies’ offense in check out of the gate, sitting down the side in the first and second innings. The Rockies notched their first hit with two outs in the third with an Ezequiel Tovar single, but Tovar was left stranded. Gasser struck out three of his first 10 batters faced, rendering the others ineffective with pop outs and ground outs.
The Rox finally got something going in the fourth. Kyle Karros hit a leadoff single, followed by a Cole Carrigg double. With runners on second and third, Hunter Goodman singled to left field to score both. Gasser worked through the rest of the inning to hold things at 2-2.
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After that, Gasser didn’t have much trouble putting away the Rockies. He gave up a single to Tyler Freeman to start the fifth inning before working through Tovar, Jake McCarthy, and Karros with relative easy. He came back in for a 1-2-3 sixth inning before his day came to a close. He finished after 6.o IP, giving up two runs on five hits, lowering his ERA from 4.91 to 4.71.
Gasser relied primarily on his four-seam fastball, throwing that for 31% of his pitches. He hit an average velocity of 92.8 MPH with his fastball and got it past Rockies batters consistently with a 31% whiff rate on the pitch. Coming off his best outing of the season in his last start, he proved effective and efficient again today.
Feltner better early, but falters late
After a shaky performance in his last outing, Feltner was more settled to begin Sunday evening and limited the damage despite some early threats. Despite giving up some early hits and runs, he was able to keep things close into the deeper innings before things, unfortunately, started to snowball.
Milwaukee got after Feltner quickly with a pair of singles from Jackson Churio and Brice Turang on one out in the first. Feltner held steady with runners on first and second and got William Contreras to ground into a double play.
Things went more awry in the second inning. Jake Bauers walked to start things off before swiping second. Two batters later, Luis Lara hit a sacrifice fly that scored Bauers. Then, Bernie Brewer got to make an early trip from his chalet down his slide after Cooper Pratt took a high fastball deep for his second career home run.
In the fourth inning, Bauers and Lara each notched singles. With two outs, Pratt hit a ball that just got by Willi Castro. What would’ve been an inning-ending out gave the Brewers the lead again at 3-2.
Bauers would be a thorn in Feltner’s side again in the sixth. Following a Contreras single, Bauers logged another hit. Juan Mejia had been warming up, and with runners on first and second and with Feltner at 82 pitches, Warren Schaeffer would make the change. Feltner’s day ended after 5.0 IP with five runs given up on nine hits, plus four strikeouts and a walk.
After the game, Feltner noted that he was “happy with (his) stuff,” but pointed to areas where he can improve, including not being “sharp at the top of the zone at times” and “uncompetitive changeups.” He mixed in a decent arsenal of pitches, throwing four-seam fastballs (30%), sliders (26%), and changeups (23%), as well as sinkers, curveballs, and sliders to a lesser extent.
In addition to his feelings about his changeup control, he had a weird day with the fastball. Despite posting a 28% whiff rate, none came on fastballs (zero whiffs on 12 swings). He also gave up six of his hits (with all of those being hard-hit) on his fastball.
A sixth inning collapse
Mejia entered with Feltner’s two runners on and immediately added one of his own, walking Garrett Mitchell to load the bases with no outs. That’s not a recipe for success. Lara connected on a bloop double to short left that took enough of a hop to get past McCarthy and score two runs to put the game at 5-2. Pratt would add another run on a sac fly to left.
David Hamilton would single next to crowd the basepaths with runners on first and third. It went from bad to worse. Hamilton took off to steal second. Braxton Fulford pump faked towards the base before throwing towards third to pickoff Lara and sailing the ball high. The error allowed Lara to put the Brewers up 7-2.
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Hamilton moved up to third but would stay there with a Chourio ground out. Unfortunately, the damage was already done, and the Brewers would ride that five run lead into the closing innings of the game.
A late rally, but from too deep of a hole
Colorado’s offense made a little noise in the eighth, but it was all for not. Lance McCullers Jr. took the mount to try and put things away. With two outs, Karros and Carrigg each drew walks. Goodman came to the plate with a chance to cut into the lead, but hit an infield pop out to end the inning.
Kicking the Rockies while they were down, the Brewers stole another base and added another run in the bottom of the eighth. Pratt, who took first on a fielder’s choice and stole second, was brought home on a Christian Yelich sacrifice fly to center field, bringing the game to 8-2.
The Rockies had one little spark left in them, giving McCullers Jr. some more trouble in the ninth inning. TJ Rumfield drew a walk to lead off the inning. Thanks to an error by Bauers, Brett Sullivan moved Rumfield to second and reached base himself. With two outs, Tovar logged a strong at bat and drew a walk on a 3-2 count to load the bases. Before you knew it, a McCarthy single scored two runs to make it 8-4. That would be enough to chase McCullers Jr.
Trevor Megill entered for Milwaukee with two on and two outs. A Karros line drive to center cut further into the lead, bringing the game to 8-5. Just when hope was building, Megill called game and bested Carrigg with a strikeout.
Final Thoughts
This was one of those weird games where the final score makes things feel better than they actually were throughout. At the same time, however, it was one where a few sloppy defensive plays allowed things to get out of control.
Schaeffer noted that the game could have flipped the other way and pointed to moments when the team “didn’t take care of our business throughout the game” and that “we were not up to par defensively, and we know that.” A big inning was enough to put the Rockies away – at least until they tried to claw back in it.
Against a division leader, nearly everything has to go right. Today, enough things went wrong, from defensive miscues to jittery pitching to a handful of batters going 0-fer.
Up Next
The Rockies and Brewers meet for the finale of the three-game series on Sunday before getting a day off on Monday. Things are getting started early out in Wisconsin with a 12:10 p.m. MDT first pitch.
The Rockies get another showdown with league-leader and All-Star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski. The last time they faced off back in early June, The Miz got the best of the Rockies, going seven innings and piling up eight strikeouts while only giving up one run in a 7-1 win. He’s racked up three wins and two losses in six starts since then and sits at 10-4 in 19 starts with a 1.57 ERA on the year.
Kyle Freeland starts for the Rox, bringing a 2-9 record through 18 starts. Freeland’s ERA has been north of 7.00 for most of the season, sailing above 8.00 at the end of May, and is currently at 7.28. He started against the Brewers in that June series, giving up just three runs in a non-decision in a 12-4 loss for the Rockies. He took the loss in his previous start last week against the Washington Nationals, giving up four runs in a 7-3 game.
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