Déjà vu.
There certainly was that feeling in the air as the innings crept by Thursday afternoon at Coors Field.
And, sure enough, after getting a solid start from Chase Anderson, the Rockies blew a 4-1 lead and lost another game to the Giants, 6-4.
Wednesday night, the Rockies got a terrific start from Connor Seabold but squandered a lead and ended up dropping a 5-4 heartbreaker.
Manager Bud Black said after Thursday’s loss that he will address the club’s shaky closer situation after Pierce Johnson gave up three runs in the ninth and blew his second save in his last three appearances.
“He was 11 for 11 until the Arizona game,” Black said, referring to Johnson’s blown save against the Diamondbacks on June 1. “But there has been a walk in there and it’s been a little bit stressful for Pierce. But in the end, he got it done.
“Now, whether the walks now are coming back to haunt him, or how teams are approaching him …. We’re going to have to get together here, as a staff, and address what we are going to have to do later in the game.”
Thursday marked the Giants’ 11 consecutive victory over Colorado and gave them their eighth sweep over the Rockies since 2021. San Francisco has won 17 of its last 22 in Denver and 32 of 41 overall against the Rockies.
Johnson, who now has a 7.50 ERA, fell off the highwire in the ninth. The right-hander ill-advisedly walked Blake Sabol and pinch-hitter Mike Yastrzemski to open the inning before serving up a run-scoring double to pinch-hitter Brandon Crawford, tying the game 4-4. The Giants took a 5-4 lead on LaMonte Wade Jr.’s sacrifice fly to center, scoring Yastrzemski. They made it 6-4 on Joc Pederson’s RBI single through the right side.
Toss out the first and sixth innings and Anderson would have had a dominating start.
“Overall, I felt good, but I’d like to have a couple of pitches back,” Anderson said. “I got more strikeouts today and that just tells me that my stuff is playing pretty good in this thin air.
“The biggest thing was attacking the zone. The cutter was really good, right-on-right, and that got me out of some jams.”
In the first inning, Thairo Estrada lined a one-out, solo homer to left. In the sixth, J.D. Davis steered a one-out triple into the left-field corner and trotted home on Michael Conforto’s two-run homer into the right-field seats, cutting Colorado’s lead to 4-3. Conforto jumped on Anderson’s 1-0 changeup for his seventh homer of the season.
Still, Anderson gave the Rockies 5 1/3 workmanlike innings, striking out seven and walking only one. In five starts with Colorado since being claimed off waivers from Tampa Bay, he’s posted a 2.67 ERA.
“He pitched into the sixth and he did what he needed to do,” Black said. “Today, he helped us get to a position to win and we just didn’t do it.”
The Rockies roasted right-hander Alex Cobb in the first inning, sending 10 batters to the plate and taking a 4-1 lead. But they didn’t score again as they wrote a new chapter in their trying season.
Colorado entered the game hitting .294 with runners in scoring position, the second-highest average in the majors. But they were 3 for 13 Thursday and left 10 men on base.
“We had some opportunities, for sure. That was frustrating,” Black said. “We had a chance to increase the lead and we didn’t. Today’s situational hitting came back to bite us, for sure.”
Colorado opened with three straight singles from Charlie Blackmon, Jurickson Profar and Ryan McMahon, with McMahon driving in Blackmon for MacMahon’s team-leading 36th RBI of the season.
Cobb plunked Randal Grichuk to jam the bases, setting up a two-run single by Jones and an RBI double off the right-field wall by rookie shortstop Ezequiel Tovar.
The Rockies, who fell two games below .500 at home (15-17), open a three-game series against San Diego beginning Friday night at Coors.
Friday’s Pitching Matchup
Padres RHP Yu Darvish (4-4, 4.10 ERA) at Rockies LHP Austin Gomber (4-4, 6.99)
6:40 p.m. Friday, Coors Field
TV: ATTRM
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
It’s been an elevator season for Gomber. Up and down. After a bad start, he began pitching well, but then had a tough outing in Kansas City his last time out, tossing a season-low 2 2/3 innings. He allowed two runs on six hits while throwing
74 pitches. The lefty faced the Padres once this season, in the season-opening series at San Diego. He took the loss, allowing three runs on four hits across six innings. Gomber is 2-2 with a 2.41 ERA in 10 career games (six starts) vs. the Padres. Darvish responded to a bad start against the Yankees with an ace-like performance vs. the Cubs in his last start. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out nine over seven shutout innings. Darvish has not pitched well vs. Colorado, going 3-4 with a 5.37 ERA over 11 career starts.
Pitching probables
Saturday: Padres LHP Ryan Weathers (1-4, 5.09) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (4-7, 4.06), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM
Sunday: Padres LHP Blake Snell (2-6, 4.06) at Rockies RHP Dinelson Lamet (1-3, 12.42), 1:10 p.m., ATTRM
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