CINCINNATI – The result Thursday afternoon was a 6-4 loss to the Reds, but manager Warren Schaeffer’s aggressive seventh-inning strategy revealed a blueprint in the way he believes the Rockies must operate.
With multiple players – including likely the Rockies’ best, shortstop Ezequiel Tovar – struggling offensively, Schaeffer is using the entire roster. It didn’t result in victory Thursday, but the Rockies finished the road trip 4-2 and are 8-6 since the end of a six-game losing streak that lasted April 9-15.
The all-hands offense is among three takeaways from Thursday and the road trip as a whole:
1. Match to win
Down 4-2 heading into the seventh, Schaeffer saw the Reds replace lefty starter Andrew Abbott with righty reliever Connor Phillips. Tovar, slumping but 1-for-1 with a walk against Abbott, was due up.
But Tovar’s .202 batting average includes a .186 mark right-on-right. He made a couple of diving plays in wins during the trip, but went 4-for-21 (.190) combined in the three-game sweep of the Mets and the Reds series and was batting eighth on Thursday. So lefty-hitting Edouard Julien pinch-hit for him.
Schaeffer had moved 2025 everyday outfielders Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle to matchup status because of their struggles – .161 and .214 averages, respectively. They hit first and second against the Reds, but when the lineup that inning turned, Mickey Moniak and Jake McCarthy pinch-hit.
In a game that saw on-base guy Tyler Freeman knock a two-run first-inning homer but also saw the fifth die when Hunter Goodman struck out with the bases loaded, Schaeffer saw aggressiveness as the only strategy.
“The goal is to win a ballgame,” Schaeffer said. “The way our team is constructed, you use all the guys on the bench. They’re all ready for it, and they’ve done a good job at it. I’m just trying to get the best matchup in the seventh, knowing that [the Reds] are probably going to go right-hander, right-hander after that.”
Julien was hit by a pitch before nine-hole batter Troy Johnston and pinch-hitter Moniak struck out, but McCarthy walked to keep the inning alive before Goodman struck out.
The matchup orientation is at the risk of defense, with Gold Glovers Doyle (2023-24) and Tovar (2024) and with Beck a capable corner defender. But it’s the way the Rockies can maximize an offense low on threats.
2. There is a worse place to pitch than Coors
Starter Michael Lorenzen, who wholeheartedly accepted the challenge of pitching at Coors when he signed a one-year contract this winter, debuted in the Majors for the Reds at Great American Ball Park 11 years and one day before Thursday’s start. He gave up eight hits, including three solo home runs, in a loss to the Brewers that afternoon.
The park wasn’t any friendlier to him Thursday.
Lorenzen yielded a Nathaniel Lowe homer in the second that, according to Statcast, would have been a homer in 16 MLB parks. TJ Friedl’s two-run shot in the fifth that gave the Reds a 3-2 lead would have been a homer in seven.
Lorenzen admitted the 94 mph middle-middle fastball to Friedl wasn’t executed crisply, but still …
“I liked the pitch, but I pulled it down and in to him and he got it,” Lorenzen said. “And this ballpark is just a nightmare of a place to pitch in, having to pitch here for seven years.
“Today went a lot like my debut.”
Lorenzen added to a competitive run of starting pitching. In the last 12 games, starters have gone at least five innings 10 times. In one of the others, Chase Dollander replaced opener Jimmy Herget and went six innings (one run, nine strikeouts) against the Padres and in the other Ryan Feltner left after two innings with right ulnar nerve inflammation.
3. Last year was last year, and the last three years were the last three years, but …
Last year’s 43-119 finish included exactly one winning road trip – June 13-19 at Atlanta and Washington. The team had no winning trips in 2024 and one in 2023.
On Friday, the club will begin a six-game homestand (three against the Braves and Mets) before a Philadelphia-Pittsburgh trip May 8-14. The next road victory will be the 1,000th since the club began play in 1993.