Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton jump on Rockies’ Connor Seabold, win 6-3

The Rockies’ 6-3 loss to the Yankees Saturday night was a microcosm of their season.

They received another poor start from right-hander Connor Seabold, their offense was a no-show until it was too late, and their bullpen kept them within hoping distance.

Yankees fans made up the majority of the sellout crowd of 48,632 at Coors Field and they got to cheer starter Clarke Schmidt’s six strong innings, Giancarlo Stanton’s three-run homer in the second inning, and a 3-for-4, two-double performance by DJ LeMahieu.

Schmidt gave up just two hits, including a leadoff home run by C.J. to lead off the seventh, ending Schmidt’s night. He struck out eight and walked only one. Colorado’s run off him in the first inning when he hit leadoff hitter Jurickson Profar, walked Elias Diaz, and was called for a balk, sending Profar home.

“It was the first time we’ve seen him and we’ve talked about this before, the first time you see a guy, the advantage is to the pitcher,” manager Bud Black said of Schmidt. “It’s sort of a sneaky delivery with deception. I think the key for him tonight was that breaking ball. That ball that got off the barrel vs. righties was a pretty good slurve.”

Black gave Seabold the hook after just 2 1/3 innings, having seen the right-hander give up six runs on six hits. Seabold’s ERA has soared to 7.18. As a team, Colorado starters have a 6.51 ERA.

“I’m hard on myself but tonight I didn’t think there were many mistakes,” Seabold said. “I don’t know if they are seeing something that we’re not seeing. They were taking some good hacks off me, but generally, how I’ve pitched the last two outings, my luck should have been a little bit better.”

Seabold said that the Yankees had “some very comfortable swings.”

“That’s led me to believe that maybe I’m tipping, maybe I’m doing something different between pitches,” Seabold continued. “I don’t know. It feels like I’m executing my pitches way too well right now to have the results be the way they are.”

When Gleyber Torres whistled a triple over the head of center fielder Brenton Doyle on the game’s first pitch, it was a bad omen. Although Torres scored on Stanton’s groundout, Seabold escaped the first inning without further damage.

But the five-run second innings was a mess, not all of it of Seabold’s making. LeMahieu, the former Rockies second baseman, led off with a line drive to right where Nolan Jones misplayed it into a double over his head. A cheap, bloop single to shallow center by Harrison Bader and a walk by Anthony Volpe loaded the bases. Kyle Higashioka’s sacrifice fly scored LeMahieu, Torres’ single scored Bader, and then Stanton blasted his 398-foot, three-run homer to right.

Stanton, who hit a two-run homer Friday night, drove Seabold’s 1-2, 93.7 mph the other way for his 11th homer of the season.

“He got ahead of Stanton, then he tried to throw the correct pitch – a fastball up at the top of the zone – and he just got it too far down,” Black said. “(It was) a little bit above the knees, a little bit below thigh-high and that’s where Stanton does his damage. He didn’t miss it.”