DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Rockies are reluctant to label themselves a rebuilding team, but after Saturday night it might be more accurate to say they’re imploding.
Colorado hit rock bottom so far in a season that has gone south from the start, losing 21-0 to the San Diego Padres. It was the Rockies’ eighth straight defeat and they are 6-33, the worst 39-game start since the 1988 Baltimore Orioles opened with the same record.
Things got so out of hand Saturday at Coors Field that manager Bud Black used catcher Jacob Stallings to pitch the final two innings — and he proved to be one of the team’s most effective arms all night.
It was the second time in three days Black put a position player on the mound. Colorado infielder Alan Trejo pitched an inning in the nightcap of a doubleheader loss to Detroit on Thursday.
“I hate it. I hate that big-time,” Black said. “It’s been a function of where we’ve been the last four days with the doubleheader and a little bit from our starters. We’ve had a lot of relievers who pitched a lot lately and you’ve got to save some arms.”
Saturday’s loss was just shy of the most lopsided defeat in the big leagues this season, after Cincinnati beat Baltimore 24-2 on April 20.
Colorado has allowed the most runs in the majors (258) and been outscored by 134. The only team since 1900 with a worse run differential through 39 games was the 2023 Athletics (minus-146).
Before the game, Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt backed Black by saying, “Buddy’s doing a good job right now. They’re showing up for work and playing with effort.”
The Rockies lost 8-6 in 10 innings to the AL-leading Tigers on Wednesday. The next day, they dropped a doubleheader to Detroit by a combined score of 21-3.
“We’ve showed we can play with some teams. We’ve made some little mistakes,” Schmidt said. “We haven’t been productive offensively. That’s probably one of my bigger disappointments.”
The Tigers and San Diego have contributed to that disparity by scoring double-digit runs in every game on this homestand and outscoring the Rockies 63-18. Colorado has given up six or more runs in each of its last seven games.
“We’ve been going through it as a team, and it’s not any fun,” Stallings said. “We’ve been talking about it as a group, trying to have more fun. Obviously, it’s not easy when you’re down that much.”
The lack of solid defense — Colorado has committed 10 errors in the last five games — is magnified when the offense is absent. Padres starter Stephen Kolek tossed a five-hit shutout in his second major league start at a notoriously tough venue for pitchers.
His teammates kept him on the bench for long stretches while putting up crooked numbers at the plate, so he had to go into the tunnel and toss warmup pitches.
“Whenever they were putting up five to eight runs an inning, it tends to get kind of cold in the dugout, so you’ve got to warm yourself back up,” he said.
San Diego catcher Elias Díaz, who played four-plus seasons for the Rockies before being dealt to the Padres last season, said his heart goes out to his former team.
“Oh yeah, 100%,” he said. “I played here for like five years and there’s a lot of emotion. But it’s baseball; we’ve got a job to do.”
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