Rockies rally, but staff can't contain Bucs

PITTSBURGH -- Thursday afternoon’s 14-6 Rockies loss to the Pirates, when Antonio Senzatela yielded eight runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings but the team made it close, was a slight aberration from the theme of the eight-game road trip just ended.

With a chance to finish at .500 for the eight-game road trip, Senzatela’s blowup made it seemingly impossible. But a six-run sixth inning made it a two-run difference and forged another close game -- until reliever Carlos Estévez gave up six runs (four earned), including three home runs, in the seventh. Three of the losses were by one run, another by two.

• Box score

“We were in every single game -- this one didn’t look like it, but we got there,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “When you’re in every game, a hit, a pitch can turn the outcome. If you’re in every game, you never know.”

Overall, there were signs of the reasons why the Rockies were expected to contend in the National League West when they entered this season. But there were trouble signs that must be fixed, too, because the current 22-26 rate of success won’t get it done.

“It’s just not good enough,” Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “It’s not [lack of] effort. It’s not any of those things. We’ve just got to put it together.

“Once we put it together, we’ll start playing really good baseball, but until then it’s going to be bumpy.”

Here’s a breakdown:

Starting-pitching struggles

Senzatela’s disappointing outing left the Rockies starters' ERA at 5.42. The Rox posted similarly rough numbers last June, but they turned it around and made the postseason on the strength of starting pitching.

German Márquez gave up five early runs in Boston but kept the team in an eventual extra-innings loss, but then he ended a four-game losing streak with eight scoreless innings in Pittsburgh. He’s looking like the staff’s best pitcher. Jon Gray is a home run here, a two-out rally there from consistent work.

But lefty Kyle Freeland (2-5, 6.02 ERA) and Senzatela (3-4, 6.21 ERA) are capable of dominating games, though they can’t keep making mistakes over the plate. On Thursday, Senzatela hit Starling Marte and gave up a Gregory Polanco homer during a four-run first and never found his footing.

“I left too many balls on the plate, right in the middle, and they capitalized on that,” Senzatela said.

After pitching with four starters since lefty Tyler Anderson’s knee injury, the Rockies will return to five Friday when right Jeff Hoffman is likely called up to face the Orioles. After on-again, off-again Major League work the past three seasons, it’s time for Hoffman to show what the Rockies saw in him when they sent shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays in 2015.

Murphy’s law can’t be broken

First baseman Daniel Murphy had a key double early in Tuesday’s 5-0 victory, and he went 2-for-5 with a three-run homer Wednesday. The Rockies’ lineup works better when he bats somewhere behind Arenado and Trevor Story.

Murphy, who also lashed a pinch-hit two-run single in the sixth on Thursday, seems to be finding his swing. He missed 20 games in April with a left index finger fracture. Before the team arrived in Pittsburgh, his struggles raised questions as to whether he needed more time off.

Murphy is an experienced bat that discourages teams from pitching around Arenado and Story, who provide right-handed power. David Dahl has that potential, but he caught the strikeout bug on the trip, and he is searching for the timing that will let him realize his power.

The offense is all right, kinda

The strikeouts soared early on the trip, but that had a lot to do with facing guys who tend to do well in Cy Young Award voting -- Boston’s Chris Sale and Philadelphia’s Aaron Nola. The Rockies scored five or more runs six times in the eight games.

Charlie Blackmon has scratched out at least one hit in 28 of his past 30 games, though he was replaced in the fourth inning of Thursday’s game by Ian Desmond due to a right calf injury.

Story homered twice on the road trip, and Arenado went deep once. While Dahl struggled (5-for-25, 11 strikeouts) overall, Ryan McMahon (6-for-16, two homers, three walks) and Desmond (7-for-21, one homer) were productive enough. But when the Rockies return home Friday to face the Orioles for three games, then the D-backs for four and the Blue Jays for three, they need production throughout a game and not just in one inning like Thursday.

“I felt like we had a rough series in Philly, but a pretty good bounceback series here,” Blackmon said. “I think we can play a little bit better in all areas.”

Right side or Achilles heel?

Admit it. When a ball sneaks past one of the young second basemen -- currently McMahon or callup Brendan Rodgers -- or a small bobble prevents a double play, you wonder what DJ LeMahieu (who packed up his three National League Gold Glove Awards and signed with the Yankees) would have done.

Murphy’s preference for playing great distances from the bag -- which other Rockies first basemen have adopted -- helps, but the infield could stand to be better on that side, considering the pitching staff needs them to put away ground balls.

Bullpen find

Before Estevez’s unfortunate day, the bullpen entered Thursday tied for the fewest home runs allowed in the NL (17) and with the sixth-lowest ERA (3.95). The group is without Wade Davis, who is on the injured list with a left oblique strain.

But during two of the games, in Philadelphia on Sunday and Pittsburgh on Thursday, former starter Chad Bettis pitched scoreless relief ball and helped the Rockies threaten. Is a more prominent role for Bettis coming?

“I hope so, but at the same time I understand that I’ve got to earn that -- it’s not just handed out freely,” Bettis said. “If I don’t get to it, then that’s OK. The main goal for me is to win, and I know we’re capable of doing it.”

How about the kids?

On Thursday, Rodgers recorded a two-run single, and McMahon walked and scored to end a road trip that saw him turn the tide on his offensive slump. Rodgers started at second base, with McMahon at first.

“We both, obviously, want to be in there, and we’re hungry,” Rodgers said.

Finding ways to get field time for two younger players whose primary position is second base is a challenge, since the Rockies already have playing-time issues at first base; they must get Murphy going and can’t let right-handed-hitting Mark Reynolds get rusty, either.