Bats go quiet as Blach hit hard in loss to Reds

DENVER -- Rockies left-handed pitcher Ty Blach gave up four runs and 10 hits in five innings -- not the stuff of headlines, but the kind of start that can win a game at Coors Field. But Cincinnati's Frankie Montas held the offense hitless until the seventh inning, and the Rockies lost their fourth straight, 4-1, at Coors Field on Tuesday night.

Here are three takeaways from the contest:

Montas dominated a team that has lost the mojo of last month
Montas struck out nine. The Rockies hit just two balls into the outfield until Elias Díaz doubled to open the seventh.

"He stayed out of the heart of the plate, and even then he came around the middle of the plate, he did a good job keeping it up,” said Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon, who had two of his three strikeouts come against Montas. “When a guy's throwing 97 [mph] with a good mix of pitches, that's a tough one to cover.

“The thing I struggled with, and I thought I saw some of my teammates struggle with, [Montas] was changing the shape on his sliders -- as a cutter, he could throw it as a normal one, as a bigger one. They were all coming out looking pretty similar. You've got to tip your cap to him.”

After a rough April and early May, the Rockies’ offense picked up as the team won 13 of 20 through Friday night’s 4-1 victory at Dodger Stadium. But during the current four-game losing streak, the Rockies have been shut out once and scored one run twice.

“These four games, we haven’t swung the bats great,” manager Bud Black said. “We’ve pitched good enough to hang in there except for [Monday] night. It’s just a little bit of a pretty bad stretch here. We’ve got to get out of it.”

Blach doesn’t scare off from contact, although it doesn’t always work
In his last start, a home win over the Guardians, Blach had a season-high five strikeouts but for the most part pitched to contact. Nothing changed Tuesday.

Some contact, like Spencer Steer’s first-inning RBI double and Elly De La Cruz’s third-inning homer, were launched. Others, not so much.

“That’s the nature of the game as a contact pitcher,” Blach said. “Sometimes the ball gets hit at guys and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes plays get made and sometimes they don’t.”

Blach (2-3) lost. But unlike Monday’s 13-3 loss to the Reds when Ryan Feltner’s worst results came with two outs and multiple runners on base, Blach kept the score close.

It could have been closer. The Rockies had an unsuccessful replay challenge on a pickoff attempt aimed at Tyler Stephenson, who opened the fourth with a double. No runs were in and two were out when Luke Maile lined one that diving right fielder Hunter Goodman caught – but the Rockies didn’t have a challenge anymore.

The play was ruled no catch, and Maile had an RBI single – one of two Reds runs that inning.

Is the bullpen improving?
Right-hander Matt Carasiti benefited from strong throws from first baseman Elehuris Montero and shortstop Ezequiel Tovar on a 3-6-1 double play – against the speedy De La Cruz – in the sixth, the first of his two scoreless innings. Tyler Kinley and Nick Mears threw a clean inning apiece.

Blach was the only starter in this four-game skid to complete five innings. Yet, three of the games were winnable. It’s a small step forward for a bullpen that has labored this season.

“The trick out of the bullpen is to get guys rolling where they have consecutive outings where they put zeros up – and I’m not talking just two or three – how about five, six, seven, eight outings in a row where nobody scores?” Black said. “That’s the challenge for these guys and I think they’re up to it."