Ryan Feltner’s baseball education has become a school of hard knocks.
The Rockies remain enamored with the right-hander’s powerful fastball and his potential as a starting pitcher. Still, Feltner struggled again Monday night, and the Rockies were bludgeoned, 13-3, by Cincinnati at Coors Field.
“I need to figure out a better way to get outs here,” Feltner said, referring to Coors Field, where his ERA sits at 7.30 after five starts. Opponents are hitting .340 against him at Coors, where Feltner has not won a start since Aug. 9, 2022, vs. St. Louis.
“It’s something I don’t like talking about, for me, pitching at Coors Field. But I need to figure out a better plan here,” Feltner continued. “I don’t have a solution yet. I’m just at the stage where I realize that something has to change.”
Manager Bud Black said the Reds took advantage of Feltner’s inability to locate pitches consistently.
“There were too many pitches (there were) not down enough or not up enough,” Black said. “He just didn’t execute pitches when he really needed to.”
The Reds arrived in LoDo having dropped 15 of their last 22 road games, but they ripped Feltner for eight runs on 10 hits over 4 1/3 innings, raising his overall ERA to 6.22. And the Reds kept right on ripping.
Colorado lost its third consecutive game — A hint of a coming June swoon, perhaps? — and received its third consecutive lackluster start. Right-hander Cal Quantrill and lefty Austin Gomber, the Rockies’ best starters this season, both struggled in weekend losses to the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Manager Bud Black often says that starting pitching sets the tone for a team, but Feltner has been tone-deaf too often this season. Big innings have been Feltner’s undoing, and they were again Monday night. The Reds scored three times in the third, highlighted by Jeimer Candelario’s two-run homer, and three more in the fourth, the big hit a two-out, two-run triple to right by No. 9 hitter Will Benson.
Feltner has been victimized by multi-run innings 14 times this season, tied with Washington’s Patrick Corbin for the second-most in the National League. The Cubs’ Kyle Hendricks has the most, with 15.
“That was the story tonight,” Feltner said of the big innings. “I have definitely been doing better on the year, but tonight, that was definitely the story.”
Black said that a key part of Feltner’s maturation is dousing opponents’ would-be big innings.
“(It’s about) experience and learning from those games and learning from previous outings,” Black said. “With his sinker — his 95 mph sinker — there’s a groundball double play in there. He’s got get a better feel for that in-game awareness.”
After falling behind, 4-1, following Cincinnati’s first three at-bats, Colorado cut the lead to 4-3 in the third on a 425-foot solo homer to left-center by Brendan Rodgers and an RBI single by designated hitter Jacob Stallings.
But that was the high-water mark for the Rockies because the Reds — 6 for 11 with runners in scoring position — stayed hot. After Feltner departed, Cincy tagged lefty reliever Josh Rogers for three runs on four hits over 2 2/3 innings. Spencer Steer’s two-run single was the key hit of Cincy’s three-run sixth inning.
The Reds added two more runs in the ninth. Tyler Stephenson lofted a two-run home run to right off right-hander Angel Chivilli, who made his major league debut.
The Reds rapped out a season-high 18 hits compared to Colorado’s nine. The Reds did not draw a walk in the game, the Reds’ first time in the Modern Era (since 1901) scoring at least 13 runs without drawing a walk.
The Rockies received their offensive punch from Rodgers, who, in addition to slugging a home run, doubled and scored a run in the first on Elehuris Montero’s single. Center fielder Brenton Doyle also had a good night, hitting 3 for 4 with a double and two singles.
Tuesday’s pitching matchup
Reds RHP Frankie Montas (2-4, 4.60 ERA) at Rockies LHP Ty Blach (2-2, 4.15)
6:40 p.m. Tuesday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 850 AM/94.1 FM
Blach began the season in Triple-A, but he’s been a savior for Colorado’s rotation. The left-hander will make his sixth start on Tuesday and his ninth overall appearance since getting called up. Blach got off to a rough start in his last outing, giving up two first-inning runs to the Guardians at Coors Field, but he limited the Guardians to three hits and no runs over his next six innings. Over his last two starts, Blach has given up just four earned runs over 13 2/3 innings. In six career games (four starts) vs. the Reds, Blach has a 6.27 ERA, with five strikeouts, four walks and four homers allowed.
Montas took the loss in his last start but pitched relatively well against St. Louis, going six innings and allowing three runs on six hits. He struck out five and walked two, but needed 107 pitches to get through his outing. He missed two starts earlier this season with a bruised arm suffered in an April 21 game vs. the Angels when Taylor Ward hit a line drive back to the mound that struck Montas in his right forearm. Montas has made three starts against Colorado, going 1-2 with a 5.02 ERA.
Pitching probables
• Wednesday: Reds RHP Graham Ashcraft (4-3, 4.76) at Rockies RHP Dakota Hudson (2-7, 5.02), 1:10 p.m.
• Thursday: Rockies RHP Cal Quantrill (4-4, 3.84) at Cardinals RHP Sonny Gray (7-3, 3.00), 5:35 p.m.
— Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.`
