González rebounds, but 'pen falters in finale?

MILWAUKEE -- The Rockies played Sunday like a team in need of the big party that Denver is throwing for them on Monday. Despite starting pitcher Chi Chi González’s five solid innings, the Rockies were left in need of cheering up after Sunday’s 5-0 loss to the Brewers at American Family Field completed a three-game sweep.

Monday’s 3:10 p.m. MT game against the Pirates is Opening Day 2.0. With Coors Field allowing a capacity crowd for the first time since the pandemic hit the world, the game will have the normal season-opener pomp of a flyover and fireworks.

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Home games for the 2021 Rockies have been cause for celebration all along. They are 25-16 at Coors Field. Sunday’s loss dropped them to 6-31 away, including 1-4 on the just-completed trip that at times looked quite promising.

There was not much offense Sunday from the Rockies, who absorbed their 11th shutout of the season -- all on the road. Even though they ran the pitch count of Brewers lefty starter Eric Lauer to 46 through the first two innings, they managed just two hits in Lauer’s six frames. Sunday’s production outage occurred after the Rockies did enough offensively and with their starting pitching to be tied or ahead in the seventh inning or later in the previous four games.

“We've strung some leads together here in the two previous games -- we got four runs [in each], struck some at-bats together to score,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “We haven't been having a relentless attack on the opposition, here in Milwaukee, or the one game in Seattle. We got to do a better job, plain and simple, of generating offense on the road.”

González, who as a spot-starter had struggled to a 9.92 ERA in his previous three outings, struck out four and held the Brewers to three hits, but one was Keston Hiura’s third-inning leadoff homer. Sunday was much better than his last start, also against the Brewers, when he gave up eight hits and six runs in 5 1/3 innings.

“It was just my aggression,” González said. “I went right after the guys, as opposed to just back-door stuff, and was looking for contact.

“Every start is important to me. I just want to take advantage of the opportunities they give me here.”

Kyle Freeland (Monday’s starter against the Pirates), Germán Márquez, Jon Gray and González combined for a 1.55 ERA during the trip.

But rookie lefty Lucas Gilbreath gave up three runs, including an Omar Narváez two-run homer -- the seventh given up by Rockies relievers in 14 1/3 innings on the trip.

“I keep harping on this: Some of the pitching principles that we talk about are not being adhered to,” Black said. “We saw that in last night’s game and the first game here. Our bullpen has to pick it up to keep us in those games that we should be kept in.”