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Remember the tv soap opera “As The World Turns”?

Maybe in the case of our 2026 Astros, it could be the daily viewing of “As The Losses Mount”.   

Seemingly with each passing day, it feels as if meaningful baseball in October will elude us once again. Consider just how long ago it actually was, since we Houstonians endured consecutive postseasons sitting idle.   

You’d have to go back to 2014.

In 2014, Dusty Baker wasn’t even managing, having been released by the Cincinnati Reds. Speaking of managers, for a portion of that 2014 season, Houston was led by Bo Porter. 

Carlos Correa was still in the minors.  

Rob Manfred wasn’t even “officially” MLB Commissioner.   

Neither Biggio nor Bagwell had been enshrined in Cooperstown.   

Center Field still featured Tal’s Hill. 

The A’s still played in Oakland.   

Okay, you get where I’m going with this. The injection of historical context, (even in early May) is only fitting because if the trend of dropping series continues, the Astros season will be history and they’ll be home in October for consecutive seasons.

That would be very 2014.   

May has officially begun, and the A’s begin the month with a series-opening loss to the Cleveland Guardians, falling to their AL Central foes in a high-scoring 8-5 contest. The starting pitching wasn’t great, the bullpen allowed three runners to cross home plate, and while the offense provided five runs they left 10 on base tonight and let this game slip away. The Mariners lost tonight but the Rangers won. The division lead is still ours and still at one game.

Teams trade early runs

Righty J.T. Ginn got the ball tonight looking to continue the solid streak he’s been on since joining the starting staff. He ran into some early trouble tonight though as the first three batters he faced all reached, loading the bases with nobody out before most people had found their seats. Not a good start.

This tough spot didn’t faze the young righty though. He buckled down and got two huge strikeouts before getting out of the early jam with a high flyout to right fielder Colby Thomas to end the threat:

That’s what we call a magic trick, folks.

Now it was the A’s turn to bat. Shea Langeliers got things going with a one-out single against Cleveland starting pitcher Joey Cantillo. After a flyout from Kurtz it was Brent Rooker up to the plate with two outs and he absolutely smacked the second pitch he saw over the wall in left field, giving the A’s the first lead of the game:

Pretty amazing considering how this game started. That was Rooker’s third of the season and he really needed that one. Snapped an 0-for-20 streak at the plate, longest of his career. He wasn’t done there tonight either.

While Ginn pulled some magic in the first, he couldn’t do it again in the second. A walk and single started the inning and Ginn got two outs right after that, but he got tagged for a two-run double that tied this game up at 2. Could have been worse.

The middle frames

From there Ginn actually settled in for a bit. He went three up, three down in the third and fourth innings, at one point retiring seven in a row.

On the other side, the A’s were getting contact against Cantillo and broke through again in the fourth. A pair of back-to-back walks to open the frame was followed by a sac bunt to put two runners in scoring position for Zack Gelof. Once considered a building block of the organization but beginning the year in Triple-A, Gelof came through with perhaps his biggest hit of the year to date, a two-run single to retake the lead for the Green & Gold:

Things have been rough for Gelof over the past couple of seasons but he’s already had a couple moments for this club so far. Gelof would actually be thrown out at home when Jacob Wilson grounded a ball to short to end the frame. Not a great call, going for home with only one out, but we like the aggressiveness. That’s a moment too.

Again, once the A’s took the lead Cleveland began to rally. Back-to-back walks to the top of the lineup to open the fifth was Ginn just asking for trouble. While he escaped the wrath of Jose Ramirez, another walk loaded the bases and veteran first baseman Rhys Hoskins made Ginn pay with a two-run double after that that tied this game back up. And at 88 pitches, that was the final straw for Mark Kotsay to come get his starter and turn things over to the bullpen.

• J.T. Ginn: 4 1/3 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, 5 BB, 4 K, 88 pitches

For someone whose control had been a major selling point, it was a bit disappointing to see Ginn’s command off essentially all night long. Cleveland made him pay for those free passes as three of them ended up crossing home plate. Considering his streak entering tonight he shouldn’t be in danger of being passed over for his next scheduled start, which lines up to be against the Phillies in Philadelphia next Friday.

Hogan Harris replaced Ginn and gave up a sacrifice fly that gave Cleveland their first lead of the game, which was charged to Ginn, though he did get Bazzana to strike out to end the threat. Still, the damage was done and the A’s offense had work to do.

Comeback attempt falls short

It took a couple innings but they got something going in the seventh. Starting with a Wilson single and a pair of walks, Rooker came to the plate with no outs and delivered a base knock that whittled the Cleveland lead down to three:

Of note, one of those walks was to Nick Kurtz, which was the 20th straight game he’d drawn a walk. That officially surpasses Barry Bonds in the modern era:

Next up, the all-time record by Roy Cullenbine in 1947, who walked in 22 straight games. Think Kurtz can do it?

Anyway, the bases were still loaded with no one out. The A’s were in business. But it was the Guardians’ turn for some magic. Now into the Cleveland bullpen Darell Hernaiz struck out, then Soderstrom, and finally a fly ball that looked on its way out of the yard was instead robbed by Guardians center fielder Steven Kwan. Owch:

Absolutely horrible luck. On the bright side the fire in the A’s wasn’t out quite yet. Still down three runs, the bats continued to work. A Jeff McNeil double and Jacob Wilson on base via error put runners on the corners in the bottom of the eighth with just one out. Tying run at the plate, and the heart of the order coming up. Instead Langeliers and Kurtz both struck out swinging, ending the threat. Another big owch.

The A’s went down in order in the ninth to seal this one. Their record now stands at 17-15 after the first game of May. Hopefully this isn’t another year where the season is sunk by a terrible May. Not off to a good start in that regard.

Tough pill to swallow, this one. The A’s offense came through tonight for five runs, but the pitching couldn’t hold down a Guardians offense that didn’t allow a hit to Jose Ramirez. Ginn was shaky tonight and clearly didn’t have his control in this one. Kurtz, though he drew that record-breaking walk, went 0-for-4 and came up short in some moments. Everyone of the other starters other than Hernaiz got at least one hit tonight (and Hernaiz drew a pair of walks). It doesn’t help when your bullpen doesn’t keep the deficit to a minimum but still. For someone who was a darkhorse candidate for AL MVP, Kurtz has been a bit absent in the early going.

It’s going to be a quick turnaround as the series continues tomorrow afternoon in the second game of the series. For the A’s it’ll be left-hander Jacob Lopez getting the ball for his sixth start (seventh appearance) of the season. Things have not gone all that smoothly for Lopez in his second full season with the A’s, and his spot in the rotation has to at least be feeling insecure. With other arms in the system ready to jump at their opportunity Lopez needs a big game tomorrow or else the voices calling for a change will get bolder and louder. He’ll be opposed by Guardians right-hander Slade Cecconi, who’s in line for his seventh start of the year. He saw the A’s twice last year, first going seven shutout innings against us in June before, strangely, giving up six runs in nearly nine innings of work in a Guardians win. Should be another good one at Sutter Health Park tomorrow!

It may have taken some time to get his sea legs back, but Shane McClanahan pitched with a level of conviction we haven’t seen since before the injuries. As a result, he turned in his best outing of the season and set the table for the Rays second shutout in their last three games. His six-shutout innings were the most he has thrown in nearly three years. It was the sharpest he has looked post injuries and sight for sore eyes, especially in the wake of the news that Ryan Pepiot would be out for the remainder of the season. Having Mac back on the mound in any capacity this season would have been a positive for the Rays. To see him return to form this quickly is as good as the Rays brass could have hoped for.

Opposite McClanahan was San Franciso Giants starter, Robby Ray, who also turned in a strong performance but left trailing and took home the loss. McClanahan and Ray battled it out over the first six innings and Mac came out on top as Ray made a few costly mistakes to the big boys, Yandy and Caminero.

The first mistake, if you can even call it that, came in the bottom of the second inning when Yandy Diaz flicked a outside fastball over the wall in right field to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. His fifth homer of the year and a perfect Yandy blast at that.

Two innings later Junior Caminero turned on a high and inside fastball and deposited it deep into the left field stands. It was his ninth homer of the year and it traveled 432 feet.

Then in the sixth inning, Walls doubled to lead off the inning, quickly stole third, and scored on a Chandler Simpson sacrifice fly. The Rays took a 3-0 lead and that score would hold.

That was essentially all the action in this one. McClahanan worked quickly striking out five and walking none while scattering five hits across his six innings. Ray only allowed four hits, but three of them went for extra bases. he also struck out five and walked none.

The Rays pen did their job again as Seymour, Sulser, and Baker held the Giants scoreless and to just one hit. Baker took home the save, his eighth of the year.

The Rays staff as a whole has been fantastic over the. Across their last eight games, they have allowed a total of just eleven runs. They have gone 7-1 over that stretch. The Rays are firing on all cylinders right now. They are hitting for power, limiting runs, and the defense has improved. They are playing winning baseball at a high level and will look to continue that tomorrow and secure a third straight series win.

Following the confirmation that he will be transitioning to the rotation and following in the footsteps of Rasmussen, Springs, and Littel, Griffin Jax will make his second consecutive open/start opposite Landen Roupp of the Giants.

Tonight’s match was about the closest you can get to playoff baseball on May 1. Bryan Woo and Cole Ragans are both considered aces on their staffs, though you might not know it from how they performed tonight, and each took home a no-decision. There were multiple lead changes, and the bullpens were tested to their limits. In the end, the Royals emerged victorious in their first contest of a new month.

Things got off to a fast start for KC. If you sat down a little late, you’d have found KC in front 3-0 before you even got logged into Apple TV. Maikel Garcia singled to right, Bobby Witt Jr. singled to shortstop, and Vinnie Pasquantino – freshly returned to the lineup after aggravating a back injury during the first contest in Sacramento – also singled to right to drive in the first run of the game. Connor Joe had a fielding error, and the Royals had a run in with runners at second and third with no outs for Salvador Perez.

Perez, of course, has been a lightning rod for criticism during the Royals’ slow start, but he whalloped a sinker that got a little too much of the plate down the left field line to drive in both runners. Carter Jensen and Jac Caglianone both made outs, but Isaac Collins parachuted a pop-up down the left field line to bring home Salvy with two outs and give the Royals a 4-0 lead.

Cole Ragans, unfortunately, was not destined to look like the same guy who had absolutely dazzled the Angels. He walked J.P. Crawford, struck out Cal Raleigh, and then gave up a massive two-run home run to Julio Rodríguez. Rodríguez, of course, is known for turning things on once May starts, and he didn’t take any time with that tonight. Ragans settled down a bit until the fifth inning – though he still flashed some poor control at times. In the fifth, he allowed Connor Joe to bash his first MLB home run in more than two years. Fortunately, the bases were empty, and the Royals still led 4-3.

Over the same span, however, Bryan Woo hadn’t allowed a single baserunner since Collins’ single. But Vinnie put an end to that really quickly, leading off the sixth.

Two outs later, Jac joined his Italian-American brother.

Those dingers felt even more important as Cole gave up his third home run of the night in the bottom of the inning to Randy Arozerena. He was pulled for Nick Mears, who got the job done, recording the final two outs of the inning despite walking the first batter he faced.

Daniel Lynch IV, only recently installed as the Royals’ preferred seventh-inning pitcher, had to face the 9-1-2 hitters in the bottom of the inning. He got behind Leo Rivas 3-0 before striking him out looking, walked Crawford, struck out Raleigh, but gave up a game-tying home run to the magma-hot Rodriguez. Game tied. Lynch became the tenth Royals’ reliever with a Meltdown this year. The only players to pitch in relief for KC and not accrue one are Bailey Falter, Mitch Spence, Mason Black, and Tyler Tolbert. In other words, the only guys who haven’t been allowed to pitch in high leverage.

But hey, Sal was leading off the top of the eighth. What could go wrong? Nothing! He led off with a double into left center, advanced to third on a Carter Jensen groundout, and then Matt Quatraro made the controversial decision to pinch-hit Lane Thomas for Jac Caglianone. It worked, and Thomas drove in the go-ahead run by flipping an inside changeup over the second baseman’s head.

Matt Strahm pitched a scoreless eighth, striking out two and walking one. Then it was Lucas Erceg’s turn in the ninth inning. He needed to record a clean inning in order to prevent Julio Rodríguez from getting a chance to finish what he had started.

We diagnosed Erceg’s issues with his slider just yesterday, so Lucas led with his four-seam fastball and sinker against two lefties and the switch-hitting Raleigh. He threw no changeups; he threw only two sliders. For what it’s worth, he doesn’t often throw his slider against left-handed hitters; only about 22% of the time compared to 33% of the time against righties. Regardless, he got two pop-ups and struck out Crawford with a beautiful front hip goofy slider. It took Erceg only 12 pitches, 8 of which were strikes, to pitch a perfect ninth. It’s still a bit concerning to see his slider and changeup MIA, and he had trouble locating the four-seamer, but a win is a win!

The Royals have now scored 6+ runs in 6 of their last 9 games. Wouldn’t you know it, they’ve won 6 of their last 9! It’s probably not a coincidence that they did this while Vinnie was going 6-for-24, all but 1 for extra bases, plus walking 6 times and only striking out 3. Oh yeah, Salvy has gone 10-for-36 with 2 homers and 2 doubles in the same span. It’s almost like having the middle of the order show up in positive ways can make this offense look a lot better! Prior to the nine-game stretch, Salvy had a .536 OPS with Vinnie at .470. Checking in again after tonight’s game, they’re at .615 and .631, respectively. Sure, those still aren’t good, but they represent MASSIVE improvements in a very short span. That highlights how bad they were, how hot they’ve been, and how small the sample sizes still are in this young season.

The Royals will attempt to continue their perfect May tomorrow night, though it promises to be even more difficult than tonight. Seth Lugo (2.63 ERA) will go for the Royals, but Emerson Hancock (2.86 ERA) will go for the Mariners. It’s anyone’s guess if they can pull it off, but it sure would be sweet to go into Sunday afternoon with a chance to sweep their way to a winning road trip.

After a series loss to the Nationals, which had a blowout loss followed by a heartbreaking late-game loss, the Mets headed west again, starting in Anaheim to face the Angels. Christian Scott was getting his second start of the season, hoping to have a much better performance than his first, which would be difficult not to. All he had to do was get through more than 1.2 innings and/or give up less than five walks.

After an uneventful top of the first for the Mets, Christian Scott’s first inning of his second start seemed to get off to an inauspicious start. A one-out single from Mike Trout turned into a two-out, two-run home run to Jorge Soler to put the Mets in an early 2-0 hole after the first inning, which has proven to be an insurmountable problem for the Mets as of late.

(Author’s note: during the second inning, the broadcast kept dropping out, and I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t immediately think that it could be a blessing in disguise, not being forced to watch whatever disaster was awaiting me in the future innings. Alas, I was cursed with a return of service and the ability to forge ahead.)

It took until the bottom of the third for anything to happen again, with Zach Neto reaching first on a leadoff hit by pitch. He then stole second base, and stole third, and then scored when Alvarez’s attempt to throw him out ended up in left field. So the Mets were then down 3-0 in the third, which was as close to a death sentence as the Mets could get in the third inning.

The Mets weren’t able to get any luck until Bo Bichette, in the top of the sixth, hit a line drive directly into the leg of Walbert Ureña, driving him from the game in favor of Brent Suter. Suter then gave up a single to Soto, and Alvarez, which drove in the Mets’ first run of the game. Baty grounded out to set up runners on second and third with two outs, which has typically been the end of the inning for the Mets this season. The Angels brought in Chase Silseth to face Marcus Semien. And then, the most amazing thing happened.

Marcus Semien got a hit. With runners in scoring position. And two outs. And the game was tied.

Carson Benge grounded out to end the inning, but there was potential for a win for the Mets now, which they were in dire need of. Huascar Brazobán came in to relieve Scott, who had a much better start the second go around this season. Scott gave up three runs (only two earned) on three hits, and eight strikeouts which ties his career high. Brazobán had a clean inning, keeping the Mets in the game.

José Fermin came in to relieve Silseth in the top of the seventh, and he gave up a one-out solo home run to Ronny Mauricio, his first of the season, to put the Mets ahead by one run. Nine outs to go, the Mets had a lead. A slight lead, a scary single run lead, but a lead is a lead.

Raley, Weaver, and Williams each pitched a scoreless inning to keep the Mets ahead to the end and then, unbelievably, they won. The Mets won a game, a one-run game, and their pitching staff was able to retire 21 batters in a row to end the game. It was the 2026 Mets version of an episode of The Twilight Zone.

An optimist could hope that this is the start of something for the Mets, that they could build on this and win another game, maybe sweep, win a series or two or even three on the road against not very stiff competition. A realist would recognize that that idea has been brought up before in the past few weeks without materializing. A pessimist would expect a few losses to follow this win. But all anyone can know at this point is the facts: they play again tomorrow night at 9:38 against the Angels, with Nolan McLean facing Reid Detmers. Anything else would be a stab in the dark.

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Win Probability Added

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Devin Williams, +20% WPA
Big Mets loser: Christian Scott, -12% WPA
Mets pitchers: +41% WPA
Mets hitters: +9% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Marcus Semien two-run single in the sixth inning, +22.3% WPA
Teh sux0rest play: Jorge Soler’s two-run home run in the first inning, -18.4% WPA

ANAHEIM, Calif. — In the week since becoming the Mets’ starting shortstop, Ronny Mauricio struck a familiar chord by striking out a lot.

In his first at-bat against the Angels on Friday, he adjusted the script by hitting into an inning-ending double play. But the Mets keep returning to Mauricio in part because of his raw power.

That tool was on display in the seventh inning when he hit a tie-breaking homer that helped the Mets snap a two-game skid with a 4-3 victory at Angel Stadium.

On a day president of baseball operations David Stearns revealed he plans to stick with manager Carlos Mendoza to guide this submerging ship, the Mets received a respectable Christian Scott outing before overcoming a three-run deficit in the sixth and going ahead on Mauricio’s blast in the seventh. 

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” Mauricio said through an interpreter. “When we go out there, we have to have pride. We have to really feel it, to go out there and have success for each other.”

Mauricio crushed a 1-1 fastball from Jose Fermin, with a 111.3 mph exit velocity, for his first homer this season. Mauricio became the starting shortstop last week when Francisco Lindor went on the injured list with a left calf strain that could sideline him for months.

“This guy can hit the ball as far and as hard as anybody,” Mendoza said. “He needed that one.”

Mauricio began the day with a .192/.192/.192 slash line with 10 strikeouts in 26 at-bats.

The Mets bullpen handled the rest.

Brooks Raley worked a scoreless seventh and Luke Weaver gained some redemption for his blown save a day earlier with a perfect eighth. Devin Williams got the final three outs for the save, signaling the conclusion of a six-game road losing streak.

Overall, Mets pitchers — Huascar Brazoban also fired a scoreless inning in relief — retired 21 straight batters to conclude the game.

In an improved performance from his season debut last week, Scott allowed three runs (one unearned) on three hits with eight strikeouts over five innings.

• CHECK OUT THE LATEST MLB STANDINGS AND METS STATS

He was removed at 74 pitches, preventing the Angels from facing him a third time through the batting order. Scott struggled with control last week against the Twins and was removed after walking five batters over 1 ¹/₃ innings.

“I am just really confident in myself and my stuff, I know that I really belong here,” Scott said. “My stuff plays at a high level when it’s in the strike zone, so I have just got to be consistent and doing it on a consistent basis.”

Scott threw a high sweeper that Jorge Soler launched for a two-run homer in the first inning to place the Mets in an immediate hole.

Mike Trout singled in the inning before with two outs Soler hit a no-doubter over the left field fence.

Zach Neto got drilled by Scott leading off the third and stole second. When Neto later attempted to steal third, Francisco Alvarez unleashed a throw that sailed into left field, allowing the Angels to score their third run.

The Mets loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth against Walbert Urena, but Marcus Semien was retired on a fly to right after working a full count.

Bo Bichette singled leading off and Juan Soto and Brett Baty each walked. MJ Melendez and Alvarez each struck out with Bichette in scoring position.

Scott began rolling in the middle innings, retiring nine straight batters after he plunked Neto in the third. During that stretch he struck out five, getting the Mets to a spot where Mendoza wouldn’t have to stretch out the bullpen.

Urena was knocked out in the sixth on Bichette’s line drive that struck his right knee and caromed for a leadoff single.

Urena, who crumpled to the ground, attempted to remain in the game, but was physically unable.

Brent Suter entered and allowed singles to Juan Soto and Francisco Alvarez, the latter of which pulled the Mets within 3-1. Semien’s two-run single with two outs tied it.

“We went down early, but thought we were putting good at-bats together,” Semien said.

Royals 7, Mariners 6

Your Apple TV Winning Moment: Julio Rodríguez, +0.43 WPA
Setting your apple on fire: Bryan Woo, -.038 WPA

Game Thread Comment of the Day

The White Sox have been worse than .500 all season long, so declaring them a must-watch team seems a bit hyperbolic.

But Friday’s 8-2 annihilation of a Padres team very strong out of the gate — 5 1/2 games better than Chicago entering play — touched on the three players most likely to make you stop whatever you’re doing and stare.

First off, and most substantially, it was a masterpiece start by Noah Schultz, in just his fourth career outing — although it didn’t begin as such. Schultz’s outing began miserably, a miserable first inning that found the wunderkind southpaw walking two Padres on, balking the runners to second and third, and then filling the bases with a third walk. However, the lefty attacked Ty France with three straight fastballs for strikes, generating a ground out to escape the jam.

And from there, that was all she wrote. After throwing just 15 of 29 pitches for strikes in the first, Schultz melted through the next three innings with 20-of-27 strikes, one single and zero walks.

Even better, Padres starter Germán Márquez, who’d already had a sloppy and inefficient first frame, was even worse in the second, issuing four walks. Three of those walks scored on a Sam Antonacci single, Andrew Benintendi sac fly and an Austin Hayes ground out. Then, with two on and two out with a full count, Munetaka Murakami took over the MLB lead in home runs and gave the White Sox a 6-0 lead with a no-doubter to right-center:

Our second must-watch player continues to place himself in rare air in MLB history. Per Sarah Langs, Murakami now ranks third all-time in home runs through 32 career games. Something tells me he is going to be No. 1 on the list by the time we get to Game 50 or so.

And finally, must-watch ABs come from Colson Montgomery as well. And Colson extended the White Sox rout with a first-pitch screamer out to right-center with two outs in the fifth:

That homer should have been a two-run shot, as right before Colson’s clout Miguel Vargas connected on a superb hustle double, turning a standard single to center into a two-bagger with an aggressive, hard cut at the first base bag. Vargas beat the throw but was ruled out on the field; the appeal at second was denied, backed by a claim that Vargas drifted off of the bag during his slide.

He did not:

Schultz ended up going a scoreless six innings and holding 88.9% of the Padres lineup hitless (Fernando Tatís Jr. was the only one to touch him, with a single in the third and triple in the sixth). The southpaw did not walk a single batter after the first inning, and struck out two.

Kudos to the offense as a whole tonight, for being smart enough to sense that Márquez was on the ropes struggling to get his knuckle-curve over the plate and working at-bats deep. Eight batters had worked counts at least five pitches deep through the first 3 1/3 innings of the game.

Three singles in the eighth rounded the White Sox run total up to eight.

The Padres did finally rally off of the eminently-hittable Osvaldo Bido in the eighth, stringing a walk and three singles together to puncture the scoreboard with two runs.

The Colorado Rockies came out hot.

The Atlanta Braves stirred in the fourth, pushed again in the seventh, and fully woke up in the eighth and ninth.

A 6-0 Colorado lead became an 8-6 loss at Coors Field. The Braves improved to 23-10, while the Rockies fell to 14-19.

For a while, it looked like enough. Colorado built its lead behind a five-run first inning, Mickey Moniak’s ninth home run of the season, and six superb innings from José Quintana. Atlanta answered late, turning Colorado’s best version of the night into a loss.

The Rockies made Atlanta uncomfortable early

The night started with a little weirdness, which felt appropriate.

Atlanta put traffic on the bases in the top of the first before the Rockies escaped with one of the stranger double plays they will turn this season. Ezequiel Tovar and Edouard Julien appeared to miscommunicate around second base, but Colorado still managed to get the force before completing the play at first. Atlanta challenged the call, and the replay was close enough to feel like a coin flip.

Tie stays the same.

The call stood, the Rockies escaped, and then they made Atlanta pay.

Colorado’s five-run first was built on pressure. Hunter Goodman supplied the first real crack, ripping a ground-rule double to left-center to score Julien and move Moniak to third. The Braves helped the inning along from there, but the Rockies had already started it with the thing that mattered most: hard contact.

Then Moniak made sure the early lead did not feel like a first-inning accident.

His ninth home run of the season was not cheap, not Coors-aided, and not subtle: 105.5 mph off the bat, 439 feet, and into the right-center seats to make it 6-0 in the second inning.

At that point, the Rockies had made Grant Holmes work, made Atlanta play from behind, and made the best team in baseball look uncomfortable.

Quintana kept the night under control

For a while, Quintana made it stand.

Quintana did not overpower Atlanta, because that was never the assignment. He did something more important for this version of the Rockies: he kept the night under control.

The veteran lefty worked six innings, his longest start of the season, allowing one run on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. He did it with the full veteran-lefty toolbox, mixing 31 four-seamers, 18 curveballs, 15 changeups, 12 slurves, and nine sinkers over 85 pitches.

The only real damage was Matt Olson’s solo homer in the fourth. Olson is having the kind of season where pretending he will stay quiet for nine innings feels like bad writing, and he got Quintana for one. Fine. Against this lineup, the Rockies could live with one swing.

Quintana made sure it did not become an inning.

It was more than Colorado could have reasonably expected entering the night. Quintana limited damage, avoided free passes, and continued a run of excellent starts from Rockies pitchers.

Holmes’ final line was not pretty — five innings, seven hits, six runs, five earned, three walks, four strikeouts, and one home run — but after Colorado’s early burst, he still absorbed five innings for Atlanta.

That mattered later.

The lead stopped growing

The Rockies’ offense quieted after Moniak’s homer.

Former Rockie Anthony Molina, cut loose by Colorado this offseason, threw clean sixth and seventh innings for Atlanta, helping the Braves keep the game close enough for their lineup to matter late.

The Rockies did enough early. Every starting position player reached base at least once except Willi Castro, who still drove in a run with a first-inning groundout. Contributions were not hard to find. But the game never became a full Coors Field avalanche.

And against Atlanta, that left the door open.

Then the monster woke up

Zach Agnos made the seventh interesting, but not dangerous. Atlanta scratched across a manufactured run after an Austin Riley single and a Jake McCarthy error, but Agnos kept the damage there. He got Jorge Mateo to roll over softly for the final out, then bounced off the mound with a little extra juice as the Rockies carried a 6-2 lead into the eighth. For seven innings, the Rockies had subdued the monster

In the eighth, it came looking for a fight.

Agnos returned for a second inning of work and ran into traffic, putting two on with one out and Olson coming to the plate. The Rockies went to Jaden Hill, asking him to face the hitter who had already provided Atlanta’s only real damage. Hill walked him.

Then came the swing Colorado had spent the night avoiding: an opposite-field triple that cleared the bases and cut the lead to 6-5.

One batter later, a sacrifice fly brought home the tying run. 6-6 Just like that, the comfortable version of the game was gone.

Hill struck out the final batter to keep the inning from getting worse, but the damage had already changed the night.

Colorado had a chance to answer right away against Didier Fuentes in the bottom of the eighth when Tyler Freeman was hit by a pitch to open the inning, but the response never came. Troy Johnston hit the ball hard, only to ground into a double play, and Castro popped out to send the game to the ninth still tied.

The Rockies had absorbed the punch. They had not answered it yet.

The ninth broke it

Juan Mejía started the inning with a leadoff walk, and from there Atlanta’s contact got loud in a hurry. Michael Harris II followed with the swing that made it feel fatal, launching a two-run homer to give the Braves an 8-6 lead.

After seven innings of clean, controlled baseball, the Rockies gave the Braves the one thing they had mostly avoided all night.

Free traffic. Atlanta turned it into the lead and didn’t give it back.

Fuentes picked up the win, improving to 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA. Mejía took the loss, falling to 0-3 with a 5.87 ERA. Robert Suarez handled the ninth for Atlanta, working around a Brenton Doyle single to finish the comeback.

Seven innings were not enough

That is the hard part.

There was plenty worth liking. Quintana was excellent. The first inning was the kind of pressure inning this team has struggled to create in recent years. Moniak’s homer was loud enough to make the night feel real.

For seven innings, the Rockies had the Braves where they wanted them.

Then Atlanta woke up.

Up next

The Rockies continue their three-game series with the Braves on Saturday night at Coors Field. Atlanta will send Chris Sale to the mound, while Colorado’s starter has not yet been officially announced. It should be Chase Dollander.

If that holds, it will be a fascinating test.

Sale enters 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 38 strikeouts in six starts. Dollander has been excellent in his own right, entering 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 39 strikeouts over 32 innings across seven games. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. MT.

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