DENVER – Some losses sting more than others. Just ask Rockies reliever Jimmy Herget.
Early in the sixth inning of the Rockies’ 7-2 loss to the Guardians on Sunday afternoon at Coors Field, the right-hander was stung on his right arm. There was pain for a moment, then a laugh when manager Warren Schaeffer came to the mound to check Herget out.
“That’s never happened to me before,” said Hergert, who held Cleveland scoreless in the fifth and sixth innings. “I think it was a bee, I don’t know. Maybe a wasp. I’m not sure. I’m not a bee expert or whatever.”
Herget pointed out the red mark on the crook of his right elbow.
“I thought I had potentially scraped my arm on my belt, but I looked down and the bee was still on me,” he said. “I smacked it away. Now I have a nice little stinger there.”
It was a funky moment on a tough afternoon for Colorado.
The Rockies have lost five straight games. Worse, they have lost nine in a row at Coors for the first time in franchise history. The skid matches the longest home losing streak in club history, tied with the inaugural 1993 team’s slide at Mile High Stadium from July 25-Aug. 18.
Schaeffer, who’s watched his club get swept in three consecutive home series for the first time in franchise history, managed to smile when talking about Herget’s close encounter of the insect kind.
“It was a bee sting right on his elbow – right there on the UCL,” Schaeffer said. “He said, ‘That’s unbelievable.’”
Schaeffer called it “a little moment of levity on a rough day.”
The “rough day” started early, when starter Tomoyuki Sugano needed 44 pitches to maneuver through the Guardians’ three-run, four-hit first inning. The veteran right-hander gave up five runs on nine hits over three innings, his shortest outing in 23 starts with the Rockies.
“I had a very minor feel for my pitches,” Sugano said, using interpreter Yuto Sakurai. “The pitches weren’t there today. The same thing happened in my last start.”
That was against the Dodgers in Colorado’s 11-5 loss at Coors Field last Monday, in which Sugano was tagged for seven runs (six earned) on seven hits in five innings.
However, Sugano said he is not feeling fatigued, even though it’s late in the season and this is his first time pitching at high altitude.
“Today was similar to his last outing, a little bit, in that he was behind in counts,” Schaeffer said. “I think you combine that with how [the Guardians] take at-bats.
“You compound him being behind in counts, good takes, tons of foul balls today. The pitch count rang up heavily in the first inning, and again in the second. He threw [92] pitches in three innings.”