After taking two of three games from the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies will attempt to keep rolling on a 10-game road trip when they open a three-game series against the host Milwaukee Brewers on Monday.
Both the Rockies and Brewers mustered only one run on Sunday, but each team played to a different result.
Colorado outlasted St. Louis 1-0 in a pitchers’ duel to claim the series. A third-inning sacrifice fly from Ezequiel Tovar drove in Brenton Doyle — who went 2-for-2 in a game with limited offense — to support Austin Gomber’s six shutout innings.
“Overall, I’ve said the last three or four months, our defense has been pretty steady,” Rockies manager Bud Black told AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain on Saturday. “The play has been pretty consistently solid.”
Sunday’s win gave the Rockies their first series victory since taking two of three games from Miami on July 21-23. It was also the franchise’s first series win in St. Louis since 2009.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee fell 4-1 to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. William Contreras capped his 2-for-3 day by scoring on a throwing error in the ninth inning, but it was not enough to overcome three Pittsburgh home runs.
The setback resulted in a four-game series split for the Brewers, who lead the National League Central by 1 1/2 games but are 3-7 in their last 10 contests.
Despite the loss, Brandon Woodruff’s nine strikeouts over five innings offered a silver lining as Milwaukee formulates a starting pitching rotation for a late-season push.
“We’re as close to a rotation we probably set out on (building) in the offseason as we’ve been at any point this year,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s a good sign.”
Right-hander Freddy Peralta (7-8, 4.46 ERA) will start for Milwaukee in the series opener on Monday. Peralta earned a win in his last outing, striking out seven and allowing three runs over six innings in the Brewers’ 6-4 win at Washington last Tuesday.
Peralta is 2-1 with a 4.09 ERA in five career appearances (four starts) against Colorado. The most recent of Peralta’s starts versus the Rockies came this season, a May 2 contest in which he struck out 10 in six innings on the way to a no-decision.
Peter Lambert (2-2, 5.07) is set to oppose Peralta. Lambert took the loss in his last start, giving up four runs in 4 1/3 innings of the Rockies’ 8-5 loss against San Diego last Tuesday.
The right-handed Lambert is 1-1 this season since moving from the bullpen to the starting rotation, beginning with his July 1 appearance against Detroit. He did not play for the Rockies in 2022, working his way back from Tommy John surgery that he underwent in 2020 that kept him off the mound for most of 2021.
The Denver Post reported back in July that the Rockies plan to use Lambert for 100-120 innings this season. He has pitched 49 2/3 innings so far and has worked no more than six innings in each of his four starts.
–Field Level Media
