The Rockies’ result was unusual on Monday: They lost off a rough performance from their starter.
Jon Gray was pulled in the fourth inning after giving up eight runs on 11 hits. (Colorado ultimately lost 12–8 to Arizona, its first loss by more than one run this season.) It was the sort of pitching that the team hadn’t yet had to endure this year: Gray’s night ended a streak of 21 straight Rockies games in which the starter had allowed three or fewer earned runs. And while Colorado’s first-place run so far has drawn on several factors—a slow start for the Dodgers, an incredibly hot one for Charlie Blackmon, the inherent weirdness of corona-ball—the main one, by far, has been its pitching.