Noah Spirek | @NoahSpirek | July 4, 2024

On the eve of Independence Day, the Rockies elected to save their offensive fireworks for another day.

Game Story

The Brewers jumped on top early against Colorado starter Dakota Hudson. In the first inning, Christian Yelich found himself in a favorable 3-1 count, and promptly launched a solo homer into the second deck in right field. His ninth home run of the season traveled 446 feet, giving the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

Milwaukee manufactured another run in the second inning. With two outs, Sal Frelick walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch, then scored on a Jake Bauers RBI single, extending the lead to 2-0.

The score remained unchanged until the top of the fifth, when the Brewers notched their third run of the game with a two-out, bases-loaded walk by Garrett Mitchell. The free pass to Mitchell ended Hudson’s night, who wound up tossing 4.2 innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits and three walks. He struck out three.

The bright spot for Colorado was the performance by newly recalled reliever Peter Lambert. After Hudson exited, Lambert hurled 4.1 scoreless innings, only allowing two Brewers to reach base, both on singles. It was a clutch performance, as Lambert provided a much-needed rest for other bullpen arms in the midst of 17 games in 17 days for Colorado.

Offensively, Rockies lineup was thoroughly dominated by Milwaukee starter Colin Rea. Entering the game with a 3.61 ERA, Rea fired seven scoreless innings, allowing just six hits and striking out four. He earned the win while tying his season-high in innings pitched.

The Milwaukee bullpen followed Rea’s lead, tossing two more shutout frames, both by Jakob Junis. In the eighth, the Rockies threatened with two on and two outs against Junis, but Ryan McMahon’s deep fly ball was caught on the warning track by LF Christian Yelich to end the threat.

In the ninth, a double by Brenton Doyle was all the Rockies could muster as they were shut out at home for the third time this season. In total, Colorado tallied just eight hits and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position en route to their 3-0 defeat.

Quotes

Manager Bud Black on the lack of offense: “We just couldn’t generate anything today… We had a couple good swings against [Junis], but again we couldn’t bunch them together. That’s been a little bit of our issue this entire season with our run production.”

Bud Black on Dakota Hudson’s start: “Hudson hung in there… He just gave up three. It was a bit of a struggle. The pitch count was up at 94… He battled.”

Bud Black on Nolan Jones’ recent struggles: “He’s in-between; a little bit behind the fastball and ahead of the breaking ball, so timing is off. He’s a little bit tenative at times, too. When you’re in a funk, there’s a couple of ways to go about it: you can go up there hacking, or you can be a little bit more passive, try to see pitches and get in a certain count to try to look for a certain pitch… I think it’s more about where he is on the timing issue.”

Notes

Colorado starter Dakota Hudson suffered his league-leading 12th loss of the season. With the defeat, Hudson now owns the most losses in franchise history prior to the All-Star Break, surpassing Darrly Kile’s 11 losses before the 1998 break.

With Wednesday’s 2-4 performance, CF Brenton Doyle has gone 7-for-11 with three doubles and three home runs over the last three games and has multiple hits in a career-best three-straight games.

With a pair of hits on Wednesday, Brendan Rodgers extended his home hitting streak to 24 games, the eighth-longest streak in franchise history.

What’s Next for the Colorado Rockies?

On Thursday, the Brewers and Rockies play the final game of their four-game series, as Colorado will aim to earn a series split with the NL Central-leading Brewers. Probable starters are RHP Tobias Myers (5-2, 3.26 ERA) for Milwaukee and RHP Cal Quantrill (6-6, 3.78 ERA) for Colorado. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 MT, and fans can expect a July 4th firework display at the conclusion of the ballgame.

Story by Noah Spirek.

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