The Colorado Rockies finally found a groove more than two months into the season but stumbled against the New York Mets on Friday night.
New York took the opener of the three-game series with a 4-2 win to end Colorado’s first three-game winning streak of the season.
The Mets will try to clinch the series when they send right-hander Clay Holmes (6-3, 3.07 ERA) to the mound against Rockies rookie left-hander Carson Palmquist (0-4, 8.50) on Saturday night in Denver.
It will be a repeat of the pitching matchup from last Sunday, when the Mets won 5-3 in New York.
Holmes has been a reliever for most of his career before moving into the rotation this season. He started four of his 11 games pitched with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2018 before making 300 straight relief appearances from 2019-24.
He has started 12 games this year, most recently against the Rockies in New York on Sunday, when he allowed three runs in a season-high seven innings.
In seven career games against the Rockies, Holmes is 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA.
Saturday might be the first start for New York shortstop Francisco Lindor since he suffered a broken toe in Wednesday’s 6-1 win at the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was the hero Friday night with a pinch-hit, two-run double in the ninth inning.
Lindor, who is hitting .282 with 14 home runs and 38 RBIs this season, did some work on the field and in the cage before the game Friday and showed enough for manager Carlos Mendoza to use him in the key situation on Friday.
“Watching him (Friday), talking to him, I wouldn’t be surprised he’s in the lineup (Saturday),” Mendoza said.
Colorado won’t have its shortstop for at least another week after Ezequiel Tovar was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left oblique strain, retroactive to Tuesday. The move opened the way for Ryan Ritter to make his major league debut Friday night, the eighth Rockies player to do so this season. Ritter was batting .305 with 16 home runs and 45 RBIs at Triple-A Albuquerque.
Ritter made a splash, tripling in his second at-bat on Friday. The 2022 fourth-round pick out of the University of Kentucky earned his promotion after hitting .381 with 12 home runs, 10 doubles and three triples with Albuquerque in May and was named the Pacific Coast League player of the month.
“Ryan Ritter is fantastic,” Colorado interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “It’s good to see him up here. He earned it. I’m happy for him to get a shot at the big leagues.”
Palmquist was the most recent Rockies player to make his major league debut, and that came May 16 at the Arizona Diamondbacks. Palmquist took the loss Sunday despite striking out a career-high eight over 4 2/3 innings against the Mets.
Colorado’s youth movement took another step when the team unconditionally released veteran catcher Jacob Stallings on Friday and recalled Braxton Fulford from Triple-A. Fulford made his major league debut April 16 and was 1-for-8 in four games before being sent back to Albuquerque.
With their sweep of the Miami Marlins this week, the Rockies boosted their season win total to 12.
–Field Level Media
