The Colorado Rockies were outstanding.
The Atlanta Braves came alive in the fourth quarter, came alive again in the seventh, and fully woke up in the eighth and ninth.
Colorado led 6-0 but lost 8-6 at Coors Field. The Braves improved their record to 23-10, while the Rockies fell to 14-19.
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For a while, it looked like enough was enough. Colorado built its lead after five runs in the first inning, Mitch Moniak’s ninth home run of the season and six stellar innings from Jose Quintana. Atlanta responded late, and Colorado’s best performance of the night turned into a failure.
Rockies make Atlanta uncomfortable early
The night started out a little weird, but it felt right.
Atlanta put traffic on the bases in the top of the first inning, and then the Rockies escaped with one of the odd double plays that would happen this season. Ezequiel Tovar and Eduard Julien seemed to have miscommunication around second base, but Colorado still managed to get the power play before initially finishing the game. Atlanta challenged the call and the score on replay was so close it felt like a coin toss.
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The tie remains the same.
The call stood, the Rockies escaped, and then they made Atlanta pay.
Colorado’s five-game winning streak has come under pressure. Hunter Goodman provided the first real break when he ripped a ground-rule double to left-center, scoring Julien and moving Moniak to third. The Braves helped the inning from there, but the Rockies were already on to the most important thing: hard contact.
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Moniak then made sure the early lead didn’t feel like a first-inning surprise.
His ninth home run of the season wasn’t cheap, came without an assist from Coors, and it wasn’t subtle: a 105.5 mph, 439-foot hit to the right-center seat that made it 6-0 in the second inning.
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At that point, the Rockies got Grant Holmes going, putting Atlanta on the back foot and making baseball’s best team look uncomfortable.
Quintana takes control of the night
For a while, Quintana held on.
Quintana didn’t overwhelm Atalanta because that was never the task. He did something more important for this version of the Rockies: He controlled the night.
The veteran left-hander went six innings, his longest start of the season, allowing one run on five hits, no four walks and three strikeouts. He used the full veteran lefty toolbox, mixing in 31 fourths, 18 curveballs, 15 changeups, 12 slurves and nine sinkers in 85 pitches.
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The only real damage was Matt Olson’s solo home run in the fourth inning. Olson is having a season where pretending he’s going to be quiet for nine innings feels like poor writing, and instead he gets Quintana. wonderful. Against a lineup like this, the Rockies need just one hit to survive.
Quintana made sure this didn’t become an inning.
That was more than Colorado could reasonably expect heading into the night. Quintana limited the damage, avoided free passes and continued a stellar start for the Rockies pitching staff.
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Holmes’ final pitch wasn’t pretty — five innings, seven hits, six runs, three walks, four strikeouts, one homer — but he still absorbed five innings for Atlanta after Colorado’s early outburst.
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This will be important later.
Leadership stops growing
After Moniak’s home run, the Rockies offense calmed down.
Former Rockies player Anthony Molina, who was cut by Colorado in the offseason, pitched clean sixth and seventh innings for Atlanta, helping the Braves keep the game close enough for their lineup to make plays late on.
The Rockies did enough early. Every player at the starting position reached base at least once, except for Willi Castro, who still drove in a run on a grounder in the first inning. Contributions are not hard to find. But the game never became a full-blown Coors Field avalanche.
That opened the door for the team against Atalanta.
Then the monster woke up
Zach Agnos makes the seventh interesting, but not dangerous. Atlanta whipped up a artificial run after Austin Riley’s single and an error by Jake McCarthy, but Agnos kept the damage there. He allowed Jorge Mateo to roll slightly in the final out of the inning before bouncing off the mound and the Rockies took a 6-2 lead going into the eighth inning. In seven innings, the Rockies subdued this monster
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In the eighth inning, it came to fight.
Agnos returned in the second inning but ran into traffic, with two on and one out, and Olson loaded. The Rockies turned to Jaden Hill and asked him to face the hitter who had done Atlanta’s only real damage. Hill accompanies him.
Next came the swing Colorado had been avoiding all night: a triple to the outfield that cut the lead to 6-5.
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One batter later, a sacrifice fly brought the tie home. 6-6 Just like that, the comfort version of the game is gone.
Hill struck out the final batter to prevent the inning from getting worse, but the injury had changed the night.
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Colorado had a chance to respond immediately on Didier Fuentes in the bottom of the eighth inning when Tyler Freeman was hit by a pitch in the leadoff, but the answer never came. Troy Johnston’s power hit led to a double play and Castro’s pop-out sent the game to the ninth inning, still tied.
The Rockies absorbed the punch. They haven’t answered yet.
The ninth one was broken
Juan Mejía started the inning with a leadoff walk, and from there, Atlanta’s contact was loud and fast. Michael Harris II followed with a killer hit, a two-run homer to give the Braves an 8-6 lead.
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After seven innings of clean, controlled baseball, the Rockies gave the Braves something they had been avoiding all night.
Free traffic. Atlanta went back and never tied the game.
Fuentes improved to 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in the win. Mejia ended up going 0-3 with a 5.87 ERA. Roberto Suarez added the ninth for Atlanta, completing the comeback around Brenton Doyle’s single.
Seven games is not enough
This is the hardest part.
There’s a lot to like. Quintana is great. The first inning was one of those pressure innings that this team has struggled to produce in recent years. Moniak’s home run was loud enough to make the night real.
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In seven innings, the Rockies gave the Braves their wish.
Then Atlanta woke up.
Next
The Rockies continue a three-game series against the Braves on Saturday night at Coors Field. Atlanta will send Chris Sale to the mound, while Colorado’s starter has yet to be officially announced. Probably Chase Doland.
If this holds true, it will be a fascinating test.
Sale entered the game 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA, 0.91 WHIP and 38 strikeouts in six starts. Doland has been outstanding himself, going 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 39 strikeouts in 32 innings over seven games. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:10pm MT.
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