Rockies' late rally falls short in 6-5 loss to Marlins at rainy Coors Field

Rockies interim manager Warren Schaeffer loves to talk about the fight in his team, even when it goes down swinging. It happened again Tuesday night at cold and rainy Coors Field, where the Rockies fell 6-5 to the Marlins.

“It’s a testament to the guys, they could have folded early,” Schaeffer said for the umpteenth time during the worst season in franchise history. “After the rain delay, we made a nice push, as we always do. We had the right guy at the plate, the guy you want up there with two outs in the ninth. … Everybody in the dugout thought something good was going to happen.”

But, per usual, the end result was not good.

Behind 6-0 early, the Rockies had the tying run on third base and the winning run on first in the ninth when catcher Hunter Goodman hit a line shot straight into the waiting glove of third baseman Connor Norby.

Colorado’s wild, two-run ninth included a single by red-hot Mickey Moniak on a grounder to diving first baseman Eric Wagaman. Wagerman threw the ball to first, but no one was covering the bag. That allowed Kyle Karros to score and sent Tyler Freeman to third.

But the bottom line is that despite Schaeffer’s soothing words, Colorado continues to solidify its place as one of the worst teams in baseball history. It’s now 41-110 with a minus-397 run differential. The Rockies are 2-12 in September and have lost 20 of their last 24 games.

Veteran left-hander Kyle Freeland, who said he pitched poorly Tuesday night and took the loss as his record slid to 4-16, did not sugarcoat the state of the team.

Asked what message he has for the fans, the Denver native said: “It’s hard to send a positive message out to the fans right now. Three straight 100-loss seasons and sniffing an MLB record this year (for the most losses). Not a lot has gone correctly for us.

“The stuff that has come mostly in the second half. We have been playing much better baseball, but the consistency is still not there. I really don’t know what to say to the fan right now. This is a really rough time for Colorado Rockies baseball.”

For most of Tuesday night, the Rockies carried the baggage from their dismal West Coast road trip home to LoDo. By the time they unloaded it, it was too late.

On their 1-6 journey to Los Angeles and San Diego, the Rockies hit .167, scored just 16 total runs, and struck out 89 times. Shortstop Ezequiel Tovar went 2 for 24 (.083) with 13 strikeouts, Brenton Doyle was 1 for 18 (.056) with eight strikeouts, and Goodman hit 3 for 23 (.130) with eight Ks.

Returning to LoDo often pumps some life into Colorado’s offense. But not on Tuesday night, or at least not until Moniak hit a three-run homer in the eighth off reliever Michael Petersen. Moniak’s 22nd home run of the season flew 417 feet.

On Sunday in the Rockies’ 9-6 loss to the Padres, he went 4 for 4, hit two homers, drove in a career-high five runs, and stole two bases.

“When you get into these types of streaks, you’re thinking less,” Moniak said. “That’s something I’ve been talking about the whole year. What I’ve been trying to do when I get in the box, is try not to think about what my hands are doing and try not to think about anything but competing, finding a good pitch to hit, and putting a good swing on it.”

Before rain and lighting caused a 1-hour, 1-minute delay, right-hander Eury Pérez dominated the Rockies for five scoreless innings. He allowed one hit — a leadoff single by Blaine Crim in the third — walked none and struck out six.

Goodman reached second base in the fourth inning on an error by center fielder Jakob Marsee, who couldn’t make a tough catch at the wall. That’s as close as the Rockies came to reaching home against Pérez.

Schaeffer complimented Pérez, saying the Rockies couldn’t handle the right-hander’s heavy fastball and effective sweeper.

Colorado’s loss would have been even more lopsided had it not been for Doyle’s play in center field. He robbed Dane Myers of a hit by making a sliding catch in the fourth, and then robbed Myers of a home run in the eighth. Myers ripped a pitch 104.7 mph to deep center, but Doyle leaped and reached over the wall to make the catch.

Miami knocked Freeland around, scoring six runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings as Freeland’s ERA rose to 5.14. Freeland’s 16th loss is tied for the most in the majors and tied for the second-most for a Rockie in a single season in franchise history with Jamey Wright (2005), trailing Darryl Kile’s 17 losses in 1998.

“I did not do a good job of executing (my fastball),” Freeland said. “It’s been pretty good lately, but I didn’t establish the outer half and didn’t establish the inner half. I was kind of working with a hopeful heater and decent curveball tonight. I didn’t have a very good feel for my sweeper of changeup.”

Freeland set himself up for a rough third inning. He hit Joey Wiemer and gave up a single to Javier Sanoja, setting up Otto Lopez’s sacrifice fly to right. Then Freeland walked Agustin Ramirez before Jakob Marsee ripped a two-run double to right-center.

Miami scored three more runs in the sixth off Freeland, combining back-to-back singles by Heriberto Hernandez and Eric Wagaman with a two-run double by Myers, followed by an RBI single behind the first-base bag by Javier Sanoja.

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