SAN DIEGO — A base-running blunder here. Runners left in scoring position there. And another loss in a season filling up with a record number of them.
The Rockies are three-quarters of the way through the season and, after Tuesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Padres at Petco Park, manager Walt Weiss is trying to remember a game that wasn’t lacking in one area or another. “We’ve got to focus on putting a total game together, putting together nine innings,” said Weiss. “It’s been tough to do.”
The Rockies have had one of the most productive offenses in the major leagues this year, but even that hasn’t been enough to save them here in a lost season.
Colorado lost for the second straight night to San Diego and for 13th time in 16 games. It dropped the Rockies to 46-73 — the worst mark in the majors — a pace that would result with exactly 100 losses by season’s end.
“We had a couple of opportunities early,” said Weiss. “Didn’t get the big hit. You’ve got to play a clean game, especially here because it’s always tough to score runs.”
The pitchers park that is Petco once again lived up to its reputation, with a duel that matched a pair of rookies in Rockies left-hander Yohan Flande and Padres right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne.
Either one could have won. But it was Flande (0-5) who remained winless, despite limiting the Padres to two runs on four hits over six innings. He struck out two and walked two others. “He did a good job,” said Weiss. “He put us in position again. For the most part our starters have been doing that, but we’re struggling to put away games.”
The Padres simply found a way to succeed. It is a recent storyline, the team turning around its fortunes since the All-Star break by winning for the 15th time in 23 games.
The Rockies have started up another storyline, this one involving an offense that has gone AWOL. Rockies hitters finished Monday night’s 4-3 loss here with seven straight strikeouts. The strikeouts — all 10 of them — were sprinkled more indiscriminately throughout the game on Tuesday, although they came at the most inopportune moments.
The Rockies left runners at second and third in both the first and sixth innings, stranded there on strikeouts by Corey Dickerson and Wilin Rosario, respectively.
PHOTOS: Colorado Rockies 1, San Diego Padres 4, August 12, 2014
“It’s frustrating when you leave people on,” said Dickerson, whose one-out homer in the ninth allowed the Rockies to avoid their eighth shutout of the season. “You want to drive these guys in to help the team win. When you don’t do it, it feels like a missed opportunity, basically, and it is. But it feels like a little more pressure at this time.”
The Rockies also ran themselves out of a potential scoring opportunity in the fourth — the lowlight a putout scored 8-2-1-5-3 when Justin Morneau was caught between third base and home.
Dickerson was involved there as well. He set the play in motion with a single, then rounded first base too far as the throw came in from the outfield. That’s when Morneau thought he spotted an opportunity to get home that wasn’t there. “It was a bad situation,” said Dickerson. “It just wasn’t good base running on my part, so we’ve got to work at that, too.”
Despaigne looked more like the pitcher who no-hit the Mets for 7 2/3 innings three weeks ago than the one who allowed 10 runs over 11 1/3 innings his last two starts. Despaigne (3-3) allowed five hits with eight strikeouts and two walks in seven innings.
“We talked about his ability to throw any pitch at any time,” said Weiss. “That’s his strength. It’s tough to pick up any patterns with him because he throws the kitchen sink at you.”
Padres manager Bud Black thought Despaigne set up the Rockies early with his fastball. “That set up his other pitches,” said Black. “As the game wore on, I think the Rockies became a little more susceptible to the breaking ball.”
The Padres bullpen took over where Despaigne left off, turning away the Rockies for the second straight night. It was the 44th time they were handed a lead after the seventh inning. It was the 43rd time they converted it for the win.
Flande issued a leadoff walk in the second inning to Yonder Alonso. A couple of soft singles and an infield out followed and the Padres had themselves a 1-0 lead. They made it 2-0 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Abraham Almonte.
That was all the Padres needed, although they added two more runs in the eighth inning for good measure.
