Rockies’ fielding mishaps continue as they fall to 6-32 despite late rally

DENVER — Rockies Report, Game 38:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: Day after day, defeat after defeat, there is always a thread that leads to the Rockies’ unraveling as they collect defeats like baseball cards.

Friday night in front of 30,490 at Coors Field on a gorgeous 71-degree evening, the thread that sent Colorado on a path to a 13-9 loss to San Diego was Kyle Farmer’s third-inning error — the first of three the Rox would commit.

With Colorado trailing 1-0, Farmer, working at shortstop, failed to field a Fernando Tatis Jr. ground ball to lead off the inning, eventually kicking the ball all the way into foul territory.

Tatis remained at first base, but the chain reaction had already begun.

A single, a double and a walk interspersed with a pair of outs followed. Finally, with the bases loaded and Antonio Senzatela nearly out of the inning, Gavin Sheets made the Rockies pay dearly for the out they should have had, dropping a fly ball deep into the left-field corner, clearing the bases.

The Rockies committed three errors in all, and now have an MLB-leading 34 this season. Their eight errors in the last three games — including five on Thursday — are also the most for the team in any three-game span since Sep. 16-18, 2003.

A five-run outburst in the fifth — aided by a second Colorado error — made the balance of the game academic, even though an offensive flurry in the final two innings made the final score respectable and matters interesting enough to the point where Padres manager Mike Shildt bought in closer Robert Suarez to record the final out.

“They don’t quit; they keep fighting,” manager Bud Black said.

Colorado’s bats finally came alive in the eighth inning, as the team batted around. Ten Rockies came to the plate, seven reached base and five scored, a single inning that was more productive than 31 of the team’s first 37 games this season.

Jordan Beck started and ended the frame; he opened it with a home run — his sixth of the year — and closed it with a 2-3 dribbler in front of the plate. In between, Ryan McMahon, Hunter Goodman, Kyle Farmer, Sean Bouchard, Adael Amador and Brenton Doyle all recorded hits.

Goodman delivered an RBI triple in the ninth inning to bring Colorado closer; he subsequently crossed the plate via a Mickey Moniak sacrifice fly for the Rockies’ final run.

McMahon and Michael Toglia also had solo home runs earlier in the game. For each it was their fifth of the season.

So productive was Colorado late that the Rox finished with a season-high 16 hits. Ten came in the final two innings. The Rox also struck out just three times, the fewest so far this year.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Within eight pitches, Antonio Senzatela had surrendered four singles — one of which didn’t leave the infield — and a run. And even though he limited the damage by quickly getting Xander Bogaerts to line into a double play shortly thereafter, the parade of baserunners didn’t augur well for what was to come, as he found himself in trouble — exacerbated by errors — in the third and fifth innings.

He was credited with four earned runs — the fifth time in his last six starts he’s allowed at least four earned runs. The loss dropped him to 1-6.

It didn’t get much better for the bullpen. Jimmy Herget relieved Senzatela and quickly yielded a single to Jason Heyward that allowed the inherited runner to score, closing the night for the starter with eight runs on the board, four earned.

Even Zach Agnos found the going rough, as he allowed his first major-league earned run in eighth-inning mop-up duty, two nights after earning the hard-luck 10th-inning loss in which both runs in his inning were unearned.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Martin Maldonado pushed the Padres’ lead to 10-1 in the fifth inning. The extra runs accumulated by San Diego in the fifth and sixth innings proved vital after Colorado’s offense awakened for five runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth; ultimately the deficit was too much to overcome.


ROCKIES NUMBER TO NOTE: 33 — Unearned runs given up by the Rockies this season, including four against the Padres. No other team has allowed more than 23.

WHAT’S NEXT: Bradley Blalock returns to the mound for the Rockies. San Diego counters with Stephen Kolek, who will make only his second career start; he went 5 1/3 scoreless innings at Pittsburgh on May 4 in his only previous starting assignment after working 42 games out of the bullpen last year. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. Saturday.

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