Saturday, prior to the Rockies’ penultimate game of the season, manager Bud Black discussed some of the things his club needs to accomplish during the offseason.
Naturally, finding better pitching topped Black’s to-do list.
Then the Rockies took the field and illustrated Black’s point, with exclamation points.
The Rockies fell, 14-6, to Minnesota before a lively crowd of 40,264 at Coors Field on a perfect late-September night. Colorado, 58-103, is limping toward the finishing line, having lost 11 of its last 13 games.
The American League Central champion Twins banged out four homers: a grand slam by Trevor Larnach in the third, a three-run homer by Max Kepler in the sixth, a leadoff homer by Matt Wallner in the seventh, and a two-run homer by Edouard Julien, also in the seventh.
The Rockies’ offense had just three hits and no runs through the first six innings but it came to life in the seventh. Elehuris Montero and Sean Bouchard hit back-to-back solo homers off lefty Caleb Thielbar, and Brenton Doyle blasted a two-run homer off lefty Dallas Keuchel.
Montero, who’s hit four homers in his last five games, now has 11 homers for the season. Doyle, who had a career-high four RBIs Thursday night against the Dodgers, has now hit 10 homers.
“There were a lot of good things at the end tonight,” Black said of his team’s late-game offensive surge.
But while the Rockies’ young hitters are making big strides late in the season, the young pitchers continue to struggle with growing pains.
Right-hander Matt Koch got the start in the bullpen game for Colorado and pitched one scoreless inning, giving way to rookie right-hander Karl Kauffmann, who got the bulk of the work. It was a rough 4 1/3 innings for Kauffmann, who gave up eight earned runs on seven hits.
The Twins jumped on Kauffmann in the second, turning a leadoff single by Donovan Solano, an RBI double by Wallner and a run-scoring single by Christian Vasquez into a 2-0 lead in the second.
The third inning was Kauffmann’s undoing. Alex Kirilloff scorched a one-out double to left and then Kauffman loaded the bases with a hit-by-pitch and a walk, both coming with two outs. Larnach made him pay, big-time, with a line-drive grand slam to right field. Larnach laced Kauffmann’s 2-2 slider into the front row above the out-of-town scoreboard. Kauffmann now owns an 8.23 ERA.
“He beat himself in the big inning — the grand slam inning — with some elevated pitches,” Black said.
Kauffmann threw the pitch he wanted but failed to execute it.
“It was a slider, down and in,” he said. “I had thrown (Larnach) a couple of cutters and some fastballs up and the slider turned into a worse cutter and he was able to get the barrel to it.”
The Twins rocked right-hander Tommy Doyle for six runs on four hits — including three homers — in 1 2/3 innings. Doyle has a 6.85 ERA and has served up five homers in 23 2/3 innings.
The Rockies close out their season on Sunday afternoon against the Twins at Coors Field.
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