Senzatela brings heat in extended outing for Rockies' workmanlike bullpen

MIAMI -- The Rockies took Antonio Senzatela out of their starting rotation late in the 2025 season, but they considered restoring him in ‘26, when he showed up to spring camp with a more diverse pitch mix. But Senzatela demonstrated on Sunday afternoon that he’s fine in whatever role.

“I just like being outside with a uniform on,” the right-hander said.

Senzatela struck out three and held the Marlins to one hit in 2 2/3 innings to add to what was overall a solid Rockies relief effort in the season-opening series at loanDepot park.

But the Marlins emerged with a three-game sweep of one-run decisions as Owen Caissie’s two-run shot off Victor Vodnik with two out in the ninth sent the Rockies to a 4-3 walk-off loss.

In the series, no Colorado starting pitcher lasted five innings. On Sunday, Jose Quintana went 4 1/3 (the same length as Kyle Freeland on Friday and Michael Lorenzen on Saturday) and allowed two runs on four hits and four walks. As was the case the previous two games, a bullpen of multiple pitchers capable of more than one inning kept the team close.

After the dependable Jimmy Herget fanned two to end the fifth, the new and improved Senzatela pitched Colorado to the brink of victory.

The 31-year-old Senzatela is in his 10th season in a Rockies uniform, although recent years have been truncated by a left ACL injury that required surgery in 2022 and Tommy John surgery in ‘23. Last season was the first that he was healthy since ‘21.

There were extreme rough patches as Senzatela went 4-15 with a 6.65 ERA and finished in the bullpen. But he arrived for camp in 2026 – the last of his five-year, $50.5 million deal – with a new sinker and a plan to be less predictable. The Rockies toyed with having him compete for a starting role, but Senzatela didn’t pitch regularly while contributing to Venezuela’s World Baseball Classic title run.

On Sunday, the sinker rewrote the scouting report, but the old four-seam fastball was better than it had been in years. Senzatela threw his No. 1 pitch on 18 of his 43 pitches. Last year, he threw four-seamers a whopping 57.6 percent of the time.

Interestingly, though, Sunday’s fastball popped in at a 97.4 mph average -- faster than last year’s 95 mph average, and even faster than over any full season.

“I was just trying to throw a lot of strikes and be in the strike zone a lot, so they could hit the ball on the ground,” said Senzatela, who forced four ground-ball outs.

An appreciative Quintana, who felt his stuff improve after the first two innings but could not go deeper because of a high pitch count, said, “Jimmy did a great job and ‘Senza’ was hot -- coming with really big gas.”

The bullpen was solid all series. Herget and Brennan Bernardino each made two effective appearances, while Juan Mejia threw two scoreless frames in Friday’s opener. Jaden Hill took the loss on Saturday, when he yielded one run on two hits, but he was solidly in the strike zone. Vodnik finished off the eighth and yielded a two-out Javier Sanoja double that barely sailed over the glove of left fielder Jake McCarthy before leaving a changeup high in the zone to Caissie.

Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer planned on a bullpen with pitchers who can throw more than one inning effectively. Senzatela demonstrated that trait on Sunday.

“That was fantastic to have him show up his first outing of the year and give us almost three innings, pitching like that,” Schaeffer said. “I’m extremely happy for him. But we’re definitely going to need depth into the game out of our starting pitching.”