DENVER -- The Rockies hoped to get a good enough outing from spot starter Anthony Molina Tuesday, but despite getting an early lead, they fell to the Blue Jays 10-4. Toronto secured a series victory and set up the possibility a sweep in Wednesday’s finale.
Colorado took the early lead, scoring two in the first on a one-out double to left from shortstop Ezequiel Tovar and a 379-foot homer into the left field bleachers from All-Star catcher Hunter Goodman. Goodman has hit three home runs in his past four games and four in his past seven.
Molina has made 15 starts at Triple-A Albuquerque, but it was his first start of the season for Colorado and only the second start in his big league career (41 total outings). He has made five relief appearances for the Rockies this season.
“Molina battled for us today,” interim manager Warren Schaefer said. “Overall, it was a good outing for him to get us into the sixth inning, 68 pitches going into that sixth inning. When he fell behind [in the sixth], he missed the middle, and that hurt him, but overall, Mo gave us one of the better starts that we've had in a week or so.”
Molina’s start marked the first time this month the Rockies have given up fewer than four runs in the first five innings, with Colorado yielding 33 runs through five in the first four games of the month.
“The 68 pitches going into the sixth inning – we need to capitalize on that and not go to our bullpen so early,” Shaeffer said.
The staff has a 9.47 ERA over its last 11 games, yielding 28 home runs since July 25.
“I felt good in the first five innings,” Molina said through team interpreter Edwin Perez. “I was doing well, and I was locating the ball well. That sixth inning, that's what really got me. I just couldn't locate the ball right there.”
Molina went five innings or more in six of his past 10 starts in Triple-A, compiling a 4-5 record and a 6.59 ERA across 15 starts. He was solid through five against the Blue Jays, but gave up four runs on three homers in the sixth, leaving the game trailing 7-2. He refuted the idea that he might have been running out of gas as he threw 15 pitches, allowing three homers and a double without recording an out in the frame.
“It was more that they figured me out,” Molina said. “They understood the sequence of pitches and the mix that I want to throw, and so they were able to have better at bats and understood what was coming to them.”
All seven runs Molina allowed came on homers, making him the fifth Rockies pitcher to allow five home runs in a game and the first since Kyle Freeland on June 11, 2021, in Cincinnati.
The Rockies got two back quickly in the bottom of the sixth, with Goodman sparking a one-out rally with a single to third. Jordan Beck was hit by a pitch and Mickey Moniak singled and took second on an error from center fielder Daulton Varsho. Goodman scored on the error, and Beck came home on an RBI single to right from Warming Bernabel, who has now hit safely in nine of his first 10 big league games.
Relievers Angel Chivilli and Jimmy Herget combined for three scoreless innings of one-hit ball, but Jaden Hill couldn’t keep it going in the ninth, opening the inning with three straight hits and yielding a two-out, two-run double to right from Varsho, who ended the night with a career-high six RBIs.
With Antonio Senzatela on the 15-day Injured List (right middle finger blister), there is a spot open in the Rockies rotation, and Molina said he’d be ready to start in five days in St. Louis.
“This time I felt more comfortable,” he said of his second big league start. “I thought that I did better.”
Third baseman Orlando Arcia and second baseman Thairo Estrada both left the game with injuries.
“It's a [right] hamstring for Thairo and Arcia is a [right] elbow,” Schaefer said. “I haven't talked to the trainers after the game yet, so I don't know the extent.”
Schaefer didn’t expect either player to be available Wednesday, and Estrada was seen exiting the clubhouse with the aid of a crutch, limping in clear discomfort as he favored his right leg. Estrada was subsequently placed on the 10-day IL Wednesday with a strained right hamstring.