Rockies give up five homers, including two grand slams, in loss to Tigers

Once upon a time, the Rockies used to win these crazy Coors Field slugfests. Not anymore. Not when they lack knockout punchers.

And not when their pitching staff continues to implode in historic fashion.

The Rockies gave up five homers, including two grand slams, and lost, 14-9, to Detroit on Sunday afternoon. The Tigers won the three-game series as a crowd of 40,145 turned out to watch the Rockies’ record slide to 20 games under .500 (33-53).

Colorado has hit 42 homers at Coors this season. Opponents have hit 64, with three of them coming off of starter Connor Seabold on Sunday.

The Rockies hit two homers Sunday, the first a leadoff blast to left field by Randal Grichuk in the sixth inning. That was followed by an RBI single by Ezequiel Tovar. The shortstop extended his hitting streak to 15 games, tied for the third-longest by a rookie in franchise history. At that point, the Rockies cut the Tigers’ lead to 8-6.

The momentum didn’t last very long. Reliever Gavin Hollowell gave up a one-out single to Zach McKinstry in the seventh, and Spencer Torkelson brought McKinstry home with a homer to deep left field. Tigers 10, Rockies 6.

And still, the carnage wasn’t over. Jake Marisnick hit a grand slam off lefty Brad Hand in the eighth. Matt Vierling set the stage with a triple to right, and then Hand walked Zack Short and Jake Rogers to pack the bases.

In Colorado’s three-run eighth, Ryan McMahon hit a two-run, opposite-field homer to left, but it was too little, too late.

Seabold, who wants to cement a permanent spot in the rotation, had a rough start. His day quickly went from unlucky, to bad, to worse.