Rockies’ bullpen suffers epic, controversial meltdown in 11-9 loss to Dodgers

Teoscar Hernández (37) of the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrates hitting a three-run home run off of Victor Vodnik (38) of the Colorado Rockies to cap a seven-run final frame during the ninth inning of the Dodgers’ 11-9 win at Coors Field in Denver on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)

It was a meltdown for the ages. Spiced with controversy and fury.

The Rockies were one strike away from pulling out a 9-8 victory over the Dodgers on Tuesday night at Coors Field. And the Rockies were 100% certain they got the strike three they needed on Victor Vodnik’s 99.8 mph fastball to Teoscar Hernandez.

Instead, the Rockies lost 11-9, as the Dodgers erupted for seven runs in the ninth, topped off by Hernandez’s three-run homer one pitch later.

Hernandez checked his swing on Vodnik’s two-strike pitch and the Rockies appealed to first-base umpire Lance Barksdale, positive Hernandez had swung to end the game. But to no avail.

Manager Bud Black went ballistic and immediately got tossed. Rockies right-fielder Jake Cave went ballistic, too, and had to be restrained from going after Barksdale.

“I saw a swing — a check swing — but I thought he went (around),” said Black, who was ejected for the second time this season and the 12th time in his eight-year career with the Rockies.

After the game, Cave was adamant that Colorado should have won.

“Everybody has seen (the swing) now, and I had a good view from right field,” Cave said. “In real time, I didn’t think it was close. … Then, after we made the last out, as I was running in (to the dugout), Lance looks me right in the face and said, ‘Cave, it’s not even close.’

“That’s when I really got (ticked off) because, it was like, ‘Are you really that out of tune with the game that you can tell me that it’s not even close?’ Everybody in the world can see that it was a least close. And (Hernandez) did swing.

“That’s one of the best teams in baseball, and we are beating them, and our pitchers are out there grinding. … That game’s won. On a swing and miss, that game’s won, and we beat the Los Angeles Dodgers.”

But when all the fire and smoke cleared, Colorado’s incredibly unstable bullpen cost them another game.

Remarkably, Tuesday marked the sixth time this season that the Rockies entered the ninth inning with a lead and allowed five or more runs to lose that lead. They own the dubious record for most blown leads of that type in a single season in baseball’s Modern Era. It was the third time this season that Colorado allowed six or more runs in the ninth inning — all coming at Coors Field.

Earlier in the ninth inning, Jason Heyward launched a pinch-hit grand slam homer off closer Tyler Kinley. Heyward’s blast clanged off the right-field foul pole and set the stage for Hernandez’s blast. In one-third of an inning, Kinley gave up four runs on two hits and two walks and walked off the mound with a 9.00 ERA.

“It was a tough one for sure, and we’ve had some tough ones,” Black said. “In a lot of ways, Tyler had a tough night. We had a lot of good things happen tonight … But it obviously comes down to making pitches, and the Dodgers put together a lot of good at-bats in the ninth.”

Colorado wasted a brilliant game by center fielder Brenton Doyle.

The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani might be the world’s favorite baseball superhero, and yes, he launched a majestic 476-foot home run, but he was no match for Doyle. With the Rockies clinging to an 8-4 lead, Doyle played Superman for the final out of the seventh inning.

The Rockies’ center fielder went airborne to rob Ohtani of an extra-base hit that would have driven in two runs and might have resulted in a triple — perhaps even an inside-the-park homer. The ball rocketed off Ohtani’s bat at 111.7 mph.

“It was a 3-1 count, a pretty big spot, and I knew he was going to be aggressive,” Doyle said. “I got as good a jump on the ball as I could, and I had a pretty good route to the ball. I knew when I was about halfway to the ball that I had to make a diving catch. So I made a Superman dive, and I got it. Pretty cool.”

Rockies starter Austin Gomber said: “One of the best catches I’ve ever seen. What a game for him tonight. Obviously, it (stinks) that we weren’t able to close this one out. But when a guy has a game like that, it’s pretty special.”

Doyle put some sugar on his sweet catch with a career-high four hits, including a one-out solo homer in the fourth off Walker Buehler. Doyle’s homer, his sixth, snapped his 95 at-bat homerless streak, the longest home run drought of his career.

Colorado also got a needed boost from Gomber, who put the brakes on his June swoon.

Yes, the lefty served up the epic solo homer to Ohtani on a slider in the sixth inning — a blast that prompted oohs and ahs from the crowd. And Gomber also gave up a solo homer to Andy Page in the second. But Gomber provided Colorado the start it needed to topple the powerhouse Dodgers.

“All four of his pitches were commanded tonight,” Black said. “He pitched really well.”

Gomber had a magnificent May, going 1-0 with a 0.68 ERA in four starts. But during his first three starts in June, all on the road, he was 0-2 with a 12.27 ERA. Last Wednesday at Minnesota, the Twins ambushed Gomber’s off-speed pitches and blasted him for eight runs on a career-high tying 11 hits in just three innings.

But Gomber gave the Rockies 6 2/3 innings Tuesday night, allowing four runs on five hits. He struck out three and walked two. He was in line to pitch seven innings but gave up a two-out walk to Kike Hernandez and an RBI double to Miguel Vargas as the Dodgers whittled the lead to 8-4.

“I thought I had been throwing the ball well all year, and I just kind of had a clunker,” Gomber said of his poor start against the Twins. “I just flushed that game. I felt really good all day today, I had good energy. Warming up in the bullpen, I was just really focused on putting up a zero in the first inning.”

Lefty Jalen Beeks relieved Gomber and promptly walked Chris Taylor, setting the stage for Doyle’s highlight-reel catch of Ohtani’s liner.