Rockies swept by Atlanta Braves, lose 20 games in August for first time

The dog days of summer are taking a big bite out of the raw, young Rockies. It isn’t pretty to watch.

The Braves beat the Rockies 7-3 Wednesday night at Coors Field to complete a three-game sweep and send the Rockies to their 11th loss in their last 14 games. Colorado has lost nine in a row and 13 of its last 14 games vs. Atlanta.

The loss also dropped the Rockies to 7-20 this month, marking the first 20-loss August in franchise history. Colorado also went 7-20 in April, which was the first 20-loss April in club history.

Manager Bud Black has talked often about “growing pains” and “baptism by fire” for his rookies this summer. Wednesday night, there was a lot of pain and a lot of baptisms:

• In the Braves’ two-run fourth inning, shortstop Ezequiel Tovar, who’s been so good this season, made a costly throwing error. Marcell Ozuna hit a tailormade double-play grounder to Tovar but he threw the ball into right field and his error kept Atlanta’s inning alive.

• In the bottom of the frame, Nolan Jones hit a one-out double but was thrown out at third on Hunter Goodman’s grounder to shortstop Orlando Arcia. The play unfolded right in front of Jones but he ran anyway and was thrown out easily. It was a cardinal baserunning error.

• In the Braves’ four-run sixth, Kevin Pillar hit a two-out single. He should have been picked off for the final out of the inning when he broke for second base, but rookie first baseman Hunter Goodman sailed the ball into left field and Pillar was credited with a stolen base and subsequently scored on Michael Harris II’s infield single.

When the Rockies went 1-5 on their recent road trip through Tampa Bay and Baltimore, Black said his team “wasn’t losing games, we’re getting beat.” Wednesday night’s game had a different flavor.

“Tonight was different,” he said. “This was one of the rare ones. This was uncharacteristic.”

Colorado starter Kyle Freeland got roughed up by an Atlanta offense that he called “probably the best I’ve ever faced in my career, top to bottom.” He served up three homers: a 443-foot leadoff blast to former Rockie Kevin Pillar in the third; a 443-foot, two-out solo shot by Ozuna in the sixth; and a two-run homer by Arcia, also in the sixth.

“I thought Kyle had good stuff,” Black said. “I thought tonight his stuff was a little crisper and I thought he made some good pitches throughout the night.”

Freeland concurred.

“I pitched better than the line indicates and those are those are the starts that really eat at you,” he said. “For the first five innings, I was pitching pretty well, but overall I made three mistakes. But looking back on the video, they were pretty solidly executed pitches but against the Braves, they are going to hit, they are going to put up run frequently and get on base frequently. And it’s a team that you can’t make mistakes against.”

Freeland, who was charged with seven runs (six earned) on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings now owns a 5-14 record and a 5.10 ERA.

As for Tovar’s defensive miscue behind him, Freeland wasn’t about to complain.

“That’s baseball and things like that are going to happen,” he said. “When they do, it (stinks). But l know the caliber of shortstop that Tovar is and he came right up to me and apologized. He makes that play 99 out of 100 times. He’s going to be a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop in my eyes.”

Rockies hitters, meanwhile, never really solved Atlanta right-hander Darius Vines, who was making his major league debut. Vines gave up two runs on four hits and struck out five over six innings.