Rockies Roll, Supply Sixth-Straight Owlz Loss

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- While Rockies pitchers typically pump out punch outs, on Tuesday, they induced consistently soft contact to produce the sixth-straight NoCo loss.

Grand Junction (23-20) still struck out its fair share, notching nine in its 11-5 win. They also allowed nine Owlz (15-25) hits. Eight of those were singles. Three of them were infield singles.

Izzy Fuentes (W, 3-4) was en fuego. The Rockies' riveting righty rung up six while surrendering two earned runs on six hits in his 6.2 innings of work. For those keeping track at home, that's a quality start, Fuentes' first this year.

For the most part, Will Buraconak (L, 2-2) brought it on Tuesday too. The southpaw survived five innings on the mound before Emmanuel Rosario relieved him.

And he had to have felt relieved his buddies with the bats drew first blood.

A string of soft singles juiced the bases in the second. Kevin Higgins hit one up the middle. Cam Phelts' laid a beautiful bunt. Matthew Turner took first on an infield single to shortstop. That's where Euro Diaz hit it too, and when Diaz dashed down the line to beat it out, the Owlz found themselves up 1-0. Marshall Rich recorded a ribbie on his bases-loaded groundout, doubling his club's lead.

But the Rockies rode the roller coaster that was the bottom of that inning. With essentially one wild throw, they went from down two runs to up two runs.

Buraconak surrendered a hit and walk to start the bottom of the second. The looming-large lefty got the next two guys out, but then a walk packed the sacks. So, with the bases loaded, Buraconak generated a two-strike ten-footer. He fielded it himself, but he fired it up the first-base line on a throwing error. A bases-clearing throwing error, to be specific. Nico Popa promptly pushed the lead to two with an RBI single.

Those runs won't play into Buraconak's ERA. But they certainly played a big part in the outcome of Tuesday's game.

Two innings later, Popa's third hit of the day brought in his second RBI. After the fourth, Grand Junction led 5-2. It took that lead into the sixth, where it collected four more runs on four hits. Only one of those went down as earned.

Meanwhile, the Owlz went down 12 in a row until Diaz dumped his second hit of the day into left field. It started a series of baserunners that Josh Ibrarra stranded, sustaining his friend Fuentes' quality start.

By leaving the bases loaded in Tuesday's seventh inning, the Owlz have now done that very thing in four times in the last two games.

Down 11-2 in the eighth, NoCo saw couple singles and a couple errors contribute to a couple runs. Kevin Higgins hit his third single of the contest. A walk and a fielder's choice moved him before Turner's tap into right field fell due to a fielding error. Higgins scored on the error, and Turner scored when Diaz delivered another RBI with his third hit of the ballgame.

Tim Bouchard bopped another homer in the top of the ninth, giving him five this season and growing his team lead in that category. That tater turned out to be the Owlz only extra-base hit all game.

Too little. Too late. Too consistently quiet when making contact.

NoCo comes back with hopes of harder hits on Wednesday. First pitch from Suplizio Field is scheduled for 6:35 p.m.