In the first inning of Wednesday night’s damp, chilly game at Coors Field, Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron reached out to make a routine catch and complete an inning-ending double play.
But the baseball went right through the webbing of Cron’s glove.
It was that kind of night for the Rockies, who were thoroughly dominated by San Francisco right-hander Logan Webb in a 6-1 defeat.
“I’ve had the ball stuck in the glove where you almost can’t transfer it out,” Cron said. “That has happened to me a few times. But tonight, the laces just ripped in two spots.”
To compound Cron’s strange, hard-luck night, Webb drilled him in his left hand during the fourth inning, forcing Cron out of the game prior to his at-bat in the sixth.
“It’s sore and swollen, but there’s no break, so it should be all right,” Cron said.
Colorado avoided its 12th shutout of the season when rookie Elehuris Montero led off the ninth with a home run to left off of Thomas Szapucki. It was homer No. 6 for Montero.
Webb, who had to wait out a 1-hour, 5-minute rain delay, pitched a no-hitter for 5 1/3 innings before rookie left fielder Sean Bouchard punched a solid single into center field.
At that point, manager Gabe Kapler pulled Webb, who struck out five and walked none. Webb threw just 66 pitches, 46 for strikes, and induced seven groundball outs with his heavy sinker. Over his last 10 starts, dating back to June 14, Webb has posted a 2.41 ERA while limiting opposing hitters to a .234 average.
“I felt like he was getting ahead of everybody tonight,” Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon said. “He was doing a good job of coming at us in the zone and his ball was heavy tonight. We just weren’t able to barrel it up.”
Besides Bouchard’s hit, the only other baserunner Webb allowed was Cron.
While Webb confounded the Rockies, German Marquez’s confounding season continued. He was done after five innings, having given up four runs (three earned) on nine hits. He walked one and struck out six.
Marquez, however, said his stuff was good, even if the results were not. And manager Bud Black liked Marquez’s stuff, pointing out that Marquez coaxed a number of groundballs that turned into hits.
“It was weird, but it is what it is — baseball,” Marquez said. “I felt good and everything was good. I don’t believe in luck, but I feel like I had bad luck.”
With two starts left in his season, Marquez, an All-Star in 2022, has an 8-12 record and a 5.15 ERA. His 12 losses are a career-high and he’s 2-6 with a 6.70 ERA at Coors Field this season.
Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. led off the game with a double to right and scored on the ball that burned a hole in Cron’s glove.
“It was a fairly routine play,” said Cron, who was charged with an error. “I just wanted to stretch and catch the ball and I’ve done that thousands of times. When it first happened it was definitely pretty weird, but then I realized what had happened pretty quick.”
Colorado’s offense went into early hibernation, managing just five hits — just three until the ninth inning. The Giants, meanwhile, pounded out 15 hits.
Giants roughed up Marquez in the fourth, scoring twice on a leadoff double by Brandon Crawford, a triple into right-center by Jason Vosler and a run-scoring single by Luis Gonzalez.
Colorado’s inability to turn a 6-4-3 double play in the fifth kept the Giants’ inning alive — second baseman Garrett Hampson struggled to get the ball out of his glove — and led to another run, with Crawford driving in Wade with a single to right.
Left-hander Austin Gomber, who wants to be part of the starting rotation next season, pitched three scoreless innings until the Giants hit three singles and drove him out of the game in the Giants’ two-run ninth.
