Walks will haunt, and leadoff walks will haunt absolutely. For bad teams like the Rockies, walks kill any chance of winning.
Thus, the losses continue at a historic pace.
The Rockies squandered a 3-1 lead and fell, 6-3, to the Giants on Saturday afternoon at Oracle Park. Matt Chapman’s grand slam in a five-run sixth off reliever Jake Bird was the death knell.
The Rockies fell to 6-27. Only two teams in baseball’s Modern Era (since 1901) had worse records after 33 games. The 1988 Orioles were 4-29 and the 1952 Pirates were 5-28. The 1981 Cubs were also 6-27 after 33 games.
Oracle Park remains a chamber of horrors for the Rockies. Since the beginning of the 2021 season, the Giants are 29-6 versus Colorado in the City by the Bay.
Finally exorcising its road demons, Colorado held a 3-1 lead entering the bottom of the sixth. But Bird, one of baseball’s best relievers this season, fell apart at the worst possible time.
Right-hander Brandon Blaylock — subbing for starter Ryan Feltner, who’s on the injured list with a back injury — was terrific for five innings before walking himself into trouble in the sixth. Blaylock issued a leadoff walk to Luis Matos and then a one-out walk to Mike Yastrzemski.
Manager Bud Black gave Blaylock the hook, figuring Bird could extinguish the fire.
Nope. Gasoline, instead.
Bird walked Willy Adames to load the bases on a 3-2 pitch that Black told reporters in San Francisco should have been strike three. Then Brid gave up an RBI single to Jung Hoo Lee before throwing a 94.6 mph floating sinker that Chapman launched over the center-field wall.
Before Chapman’s granny (the third of his career), the Rockies’ bullpen had not allowed a home run over their last 18 games (78 innings), the longest streak in franchise history.
Bird took the mound with a 0.95 ERA, holding opponents scoreless over his last seven outings. He departed with a 2.21 ERA, charged with three runs on three hits and three walks.
Giants starter Jordan Hicks dominated Colorado for five innings, allowing just one hit (a one-out single by Kyle Farmer in the fifth) and three total base runners. And while the Rockies had only five hits, they flipped a switch in the sixth, going from lifeless to lights out. That’s something rarely seen by the 2025 Rockies.
Brenton Doyle led off with a walk, and then Jordan Beck, Ryan McMahon and Hunter Goodman followed with successive singles to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead. Colorado made it 3-1 when Farmer lined a shot off Hicks right shoe and the ball trickled into left field to score McMahon.
As it turned out, the rally only set the stage for another painful loss.
For the record, Blaylock, mixing all four of his pitches well, gave up three runs and three hits, walked two, and fanned four. He surrendered a solo homer to Matos in the third on a hanging slider.
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