Rockies, hurt by poor defense, lose to Reds, limp into All-Star break 22-74

Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post on Jul 13, 2025

Published in Baseball

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The Colorado Rockies limped into the All-Star break in an altogether fitting fashion.

Poor defense and a failure to deliver key hits, two characteristics that have plagued the club throughout its historically bad first half, again cost Colorado on Sunday in a 4-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park.

The Reds, hanging on to playoff hopes, improved to 50-47. More significantly, manager Terry Francona got his 2,000th career win, becoming just the 13th manager to reach the 2,000-win milestone.

The Rockies go on vacation carrying the baggage of a 22-74 record. Colorado’s 74 losses before the All-Star break are the most since 1933, the year of the first All-Star Game. Colorado surpassed the 2024 White Sox, who were 27-71 at the break.

The Rockies’ killer mistake came in the fifth. With the bases loaded and two outs, Noelvi Marte hit a routine chopper to rookie shortstop Ryan Ritter, but Ritter fumbled the ball and TJ Friedl scored from third, giving the Reds a 3-2 lead.

Cincinnati tacked on a bonus run in the seventh on Spencer Steer’s RBI single off reliever Zach Agnos. All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz led off the inning with a double and advanced to third when Rockies second baseman Kyle Farmer committed another error. The Rockies’ 82 errors are the most in the majors, and their .977 fielding percentage is the worst.

The Rockies had seven hits but hit 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position and left eight men stranded. In their 4-3 walk-off loss to Cincy on Saturday night, the Rockies were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.

On Sunday, Colorado’s two runs came in the third against Reds right-hander Nick Martinez. Farmer and Austin Nola opened the inning with back-to-back singles, and Mickey Moniak came through with a two-out, two-run single. But Colorado’s offense sputtered from there.

Colorado lefty starter Austin Gomber did his job, though he needed 90 pitches to get through 4 1/3 innings.

Friedl led off the Reds’ first inning with a homer to right on Gomber’s belt-high, 2-1 fastball. But Gomber settled in and finished with a decent line: three runs (two earned) on six hits, with two walks and three strikeouts.

Gomber (0-3, 5.65 ERA) deserved a better fate in the third inning. He gave up a one-out walk to Friedl and made a good pitch to Matt McClain, who hit a shallow fly to left, but rookie Yanquiel Fernandez made a poor break on the ball and McClain got a cheap single. Gomber got the dangerous De La Cruz to ground into a fielder’s choice, but Austin Hayes drove an RBI single up the middle to score Friedl, tying the game 2-2.

The Rockies, on pace to set a modern era record with 125 losses, are off until Friday when they host the Minnesota Twins at Coors Field.

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