Colorado Rockies game no. 9 thread: Taijuan Walker vs Tomoyuki Sugano

After a blowout loss on their Home Opener and yet another one-run loss last night, the Colorado Rockies stand just one game away from being swept at home by the Philadelphia Phillies. Believe it or not, the problem hasn’t been the pitching. Only two of the Rockies’ seven losses this season have been by more than one run and only one has been in blowout fashion.

The problem instead lies in the offense. The Rockies have scored just five total runs in their last four games, and in that time they’ve scored more than one run just once. They’re striking out more than 11 times per game on average, have the fewest walks in the league, have homered just five times, and are tied for having the second-fewest runs in baseball.

Tomoyuki Sugano will take the mound this afternoon, looking to keep the train of pitching positivity alive and hoping his Coors Field debut goes better than Michael Lorenzen’s did on Friday. Sugano looked excellent in his Rockies debut against Toronto last week, where he worked 4.2 innings and gave up just one earned run on two hits and two walks. The lone run came via a solo home run—those will happen with Sugano—but he also struck out four batters.

Making the start for the Phillies is the right-handed Taijuan Walker. Walker struggled in his first outing of the year against the Washington Nationals, giving up seven runs—six earned—on ten hits and three walks over 4.2 innings. However, Walker has also been historically successful against the Rockies. In ten career starts against the Rockies he holds an ERA of just 2.36 over 61 innings and has given up just five home runs. This season Walker is utilizing a six pitch mix consisting of a slider, a cutter, a sinker, a curveball, a four-seam fastball, and a primary split-finger.

First Pitch: 1:10pm MDT

TV: Rockies.tv

Radio: KOA 850 AM/94.1 FM; KNRV 1150 (Spanish)

Lineups: