Rockies' offense woeful again in 8-1 loss to Reds at Coors Field

Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post on Apr 27, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DENVER — At least the Swifties are happy.

After every Colorado Rockies loss at Coors Field, Taylor Swift‘s “Shake It Off” is cheerily played through the sound system. It’s music to opponents’ ears.

The Rockies lost again Sunday afternoon, falling 8-1 to the Cincinnati Reds in a game that once again illustrated that Colorado’s offense is closer to Triple-A than big league. Colorado was outhit 14-3.

And so the avalanche of defeats continued.

Colorado lost its sixth straight and is now 4-23 to open a season that gets darker by the day, and the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel seems a million miles away. The Rockies are 3-9 in their home ballpark.

Just how low did the Rockies go in LoDo on Sunday? Reds lefty Nick Lodolo threw a no-hitter for 5 2/3 innings. It was the longest no-hit bid of his career.

Lodolow finished his day with a seven-inning gem, allowing two hits, striking out nine, and walking one. Colorado dropped to 0-9 against left-handed starters, making it the only major league team this season without a win in a game that featured an opposing left-handed starter.

“He was good,” Rockies veteran catcher Jacob Stallings said. “I’ve faced him a few times in the past, and the ball was coming out of his hand the best I’ve ever seen. His fastball was jumping, and his changeup looked just like his fastball coming out of his hand.”

Rockies manager Bud Black added: “He’s on his way, and if he stays healthy, he could have a good career and a good arm.”

But Black also knows that his offense is struggling mightily.

“We just couldn’t solve him … and our group today just couldn’t barrel him,” Black said. “We were looking for the fastball, and we thought that would be the way to get him because it’s been hit.

“His secondary pitches haven’t been hit. We tried to get on the fastball as best we could, but early in the game we had some swings and misses against (the fastball) and some foul balls. We just couldn’t square up the fastball, and then he started throwing the breaking ball in there, too, and our righties were swinging over the top of it.”

The Rockies’ first hit might not have been a hit of all. Their second hit barely reached the third-base bag.

With one out in the sixth, Colorado’s Jordan Beck hit a hard grounder that shortstop Elly De La Cruz dug out of the hole. De La Cruz spun and made a throw to first baseman Spencer Steer. The wide throw pulled Steer off the bag and the official scorer ruled it a hit. The Reds questioned the scoring decision, but the call stood.

Black said the hit could have been scored as an error.

“That was questionable, right?” Black said. “In general, we’ve seen it across the board — a little more liberal (scoring). Beck was getting down the line; he really was. It was a bang-bang play. For me, the throw drew him off. So if you want to call that an error, I would have been OK with that.”

In the seventh, Colorado’s Kyle Farmer hit a ball that tightroped the third-base line and hit the bag, giving Farmer an infield single that snapped his 0 for 23 slump.

Colorado finally got on the board in the eighth against reliever Lyon Richardson. Alan Trejo, added to the team on Sunday, led off with a single and scored on Beck’s sacrifice fly to center. As Trejo crossed the plate, the fans responded with a sarcastic LoDo cheer.

Right-hander Ryan Feltner was initially scheduled to start Sunday’s game, but he’s still recovering from back spasms. Colorado called up right-hander Bradley Blalock from Triple-A Albuquerque to replace Feltner. Blalock had an erratic outing, giving up six runs on seven hits over four innings.

Feltner is slated to start Monday’s game against the Atlanta Braves at Coors Field.

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