Groke: Rockies ‘season certainly not over’ despite ‘gut-punch’ loss

Denver Post Rockies beat reporter Nick Groke described the Colorado’s 12-6 loss Sunday against the Los Angeles Dodgers as a “gut-punch,” both in his game recap and also with 104.3 The Fan’s Sandy Clough on Monday.

Arguably the toughest loss of the 2017 campaign so far, and its ugliest during its five-game losing streak, a Rockies slipped away Sunday with a franchise record-tying four wild pitches from reliever Adam Ottavino in the seventh.

Up 5-0 in through the top half of the third inning, Colorado allowed LA to claw back within one. By the seventh, the Rockies had a two-run lead, but the Dodgers would score three runs in that inning on two wild pitches and two runs in the next on two more.

Cody Bellinger tacked on a two-run home run, and reliever Kenley Jansen added insult to injury with a one-run double to give the Dodgers a 12-6 win.

“It was a 5-0 lead at Dodger Stadium. You’ve got to win that game,” Clough said Monday.

However, Clough cautioned that the last two series the Rockies have faced the “two hottest teams in baseball at the moment by far.”

“Even Houston over in the American League, while 7 out of 10 isn’t by but it’s not 8 out of 10 the way the Diamondbacks have done it and it’s certainly not 10 in a row the way the Dodgers have done it,” Clough said. “That’s a big part of it.”

Groke echoed the sentiment, saying that even though they “should have won that game,” look at the big picture, Colorado’s still 16 games above .500.

“They could lose 15 games in a row and they’ll still have a wild card spot. The National League is so bad that there are four teams and then there’s everybody else, basically, right now,” Groke said.

“A five-game losing streak is bad, and it’s exposing some issues with this team. The season’s certainly not over.”

The loss drops the Rockies to 4 ½ games back of the Dodgers and 2 ½ behind the Diamondbacks.

However, Colorado remains comfortably in the second wild card slot, 7 ½ games up on the Chicago Cubs.

Follow digital content producer Johnny Hart on Twitter: @johnnyhart7.