Rockies fall despite Goodman blasting his 26th homer of the season

Rockies Report, Game 85:

Trailing 2-0 midway through the second inning, Colorado bats quickly awakened. TJ Rumfield, Cole Carrigg and Kyle Karros each singled to load the bases with one out. Ezequiel Tovar brought home Rumfield with a sacrifice fly, and after a subsequent Sandy Alctanara walk of Edouard Julien, Jake McCarthy sliced a warning-track double that skipped off the glove of Miami left fielder Estuary Ruiz, scoring Carrigg and Karros to put the Rox in front.

An inning later, Karros added to the Rockies’ lead, delivering a 2-RBI line-drive double to push the Rox in front, 5-2.

It didn’t last. Miami’s Otto Lopez led off the fifth inning with a solo home run off Sean Sullivan to trim the lead. Sullivan logged two more outs but allowed a pair of baserunners before ceding matters to Victor Vodnil, whose second pitch landed 433 feet away, as Griffin Conine crushed it off the façade of the Rooftop level in right field, putting Miami back in front.

In the seventh, it went from bad to worse. Three nights after Antonio Senzatela was on the business end of Minnesota’s bottom-of-the-ninth response to the Rockies’ five-run outburst, he made it through just two-thirds of an inning, as he loaded the bases, then surrendered a bases-clearing triple to Javier Sanoja. Three pitches later, Joe Mack’s infield single brought home Sanoja, and the Marlins had a five-run edge.

Senzatela’s ERA has spiked from 1.30 after play on June 1 to 3.07; he has an 8.18 ERA over nine June appearances this month, which could potentially depress what had thought to be robust trade value.

As for Goodman, he now sits just two home runs shy of matching Hall of Famer Johnny Bench for the most by a National League catcher prior to the All-Star Break. Bench set the record with 28 in 1970; the major-league standard is 38, set by Seattle’s Cal Raleigh last year.

His tally is also the highest for any Rockies player prior to July 1.

Despite that, Colorado fell to 33-52 and dropped its third game in its last four outings. The Rockies also clinched a sub-.500 June and a season series loss to Miami, which swept their previous three-game set to open the regular season.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Sean Sullivan was game, but he still hasn’t quite figured things out at the major-league level, ultimately lasting 4 2/3 innings — although he avoided receiving credit for the loss thanks to the Rockies’ early production.

After a 1-2-3 first inning, matters got away from Sullivan in the second inning, as he sandwiched a pair of doubles with a plunking of Kyle Stowers. Leo Jiménez brought home a pair of runs with a double to center field.

Sullivan escaped a two-out, two-on jam in the third and delivered a scoreless fourth before Miami responded and took the lead at his expense. He left his appearance with a 1.86 WHIP through four starts.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: The Rockies could only get the tying run into the on-deck circle in the ninth despite having a pair of batters reach base before Miami closer Pete Fairbanks could log an out.

NUMBER TO NOTE: .353 — Karros’ batting average in June.

WHAT’S NEXT: The second game of the series, which is expected to feature Tanner Gordon returning to the rotation after being sidelined with a hip issue that landed him on the 15-day injured list. Eury Pérez will get the call for the Fish. First pitch for June’s final game. is set for 6:40 p.m. MDT.