HEADLINE

Rockies try to remain on roll against Marlins

Field Level Media

August 18, 2019 at 7:58 am.

The season has gotten away from the Colorado Rockies but they’re trying to salvage something out of 2019 before heading into the winter.

Colorado came in with expectations of contending for a postseason berth for the third straight year but a 13-33 stretch from late June through the first two games of its current six-game homestand changed those plans.

The last three games have shown there’s still some fight left, however. The Rockies have won three straight after Saturday night’s 11-3 win over the Miami Marlins and go for the sweep Sunday at Coors Field.

It would be the Rockies’ first series sweep since June 18-20 against Arizona, which is also the last time they have won three in a row.

Sunday’s matchup will pit a pair of rookie right-handers in Miami’s Jordan Yamamoto and Colorado’s Peter Lambert. Neither has faced Sunday’s opponent and both are trying to get back in the win column after a run of bad outings.

The two made their major league debuts six days apart and both made a splash right away. Lambert allowed just one run in seven innings against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field to get the win in his debut June 6, and then beat the Cubs five days later in Denver.

Yamamoto, who was acquired from Milwaukee in the January 2018 deal that sent Christian Yelich to the Brewers, was called up June 12 and had an even more impressive first start. He shut out the St. Louis Cardinals over seven innings in Miami and then duplicated the feat at St. Louis six days later.

He won his next start, too, and after a couple of no-decisions in which he gave up just four runs — two earned — in 10 innings, he improved to 4-0 by beating San Diego on July 16.

Yamamoto (4-4, 4.42 ERA) has struggled since then, going 0-4 with an 8.28 ERA over his last five starts while allowing eight home runs in those games. He is averaging just five innings since his last win and got knocked around by the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday, allowing four runs in five innings and giving up two homers.

“It’s always a learning experience, from losing,” Yamamoto said after getting beat by the Dodgers. “It (stinks) to lose. But at the same time, you still learn a lot about yourself and your team in those hard times.”

Lambert (2-3, 6.75) has had a rough go of it since facing the Cubs. In his third start, the Padres rocked him for eight runs in three innings, and he has pitched into the sixth inning just three times in his last 10 starts.

The Rockies have only one win in those 10 outings although Lambert has taken the loss in just three of those games. In his worst outing, a three-inning, nine-run performance at Houston on Aug. 7, Lambert gave up a home run on his first pitch of the game and never found a rhythm.

“It’s all a learning curve and every game you’re going out there and learning a little more,” Lambert said after the loss to the Astros.

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