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Bettis, Rockies struggle in 11-8 loss to Reds

Cincinnati Red Zack Cozart broke out of a slump in a big way with two homers.

DENVER – The Colorado Rockies are struggling with location these days, whether it’s pitches over the plate or simply playing at Coors Field.

Translation: Homers and home field hiccups.

Chad Bettis and the bullpen allowed five home runs as the Rockies dropped their third straight at Coors Field, an 11-8 loss to the struggling Cincinnati Reds on Monday.

“We know we’re better than the way we’re playing,” said Carlos Gonzalez, who homered in his third straight game. “We have to win this game, against these guys. They have some really good players out there, but they’ve been limping. When you have a team like that, you can’t give them a break and that’s what we did today.”

This was perhaps an ominous sign of things to come: Zack Cozart homered on the first pitch of the game.

To think, Bettis (4-4) and the staff have been stingy with homers in May, surrendering a league-low 15 heading into Memorial Day. But Cozart got the Reds’ long-ball parade rolling, with Adam Duvall turning in his first two-homer game, Joey Votto hitting his 200th career homer and Eugenio Suarez – who came in mired in an 0-for-28 skid – also going deep.

“Just location,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss explained. “Some pitches that were good to hit. That’s it.”

Lately, Coors Field has been anything but a home field advantage for the Rockies, who are 9-13 in the Mile High City. Weiss isn’t ready to read too much into things just yet.

“Win these next three games, win this series and that tune changes,” Weiss said.

The Rockies had a 5-1 lead heading into the fourth, but Bettis couldn’t hold it against a team that ranks near the bottom of the league in batting average. About that time, the wind began to pick up as a brief rain storm went through the area. Cincinnati scored five in the inning to chase Bettis from the game and take a lead the Reds wouldn’t relinquish.

In the game-changing inning, Bettis walked pitcher Dan Straily (3-2).

“You can’t have that happen at that point,” Bettis said. “It’s an at-bat that swings the whole game. Have to be better than that and I have faith that I will be.”

It was another shaky outing for Bettis as he gave up eight hits and six runs – including two homers – in 3 2-3 innings.

This was on the heels of throwing 4 2-3 innings in a loss at Boston last week.

“Last start was two pitches. This start was more,” Bettis said. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”

Bettis wouldn’t elaborate on what exactly he needed to fix. He did hint that it had to do with location.

“I felt like today, I got myself in a lot of bad counts,” Bettis said. “Threw a lot of fastballs in fastball counts. They hit fastballs. This is a start I’m going to wash away and move on.”

Another critical point in the game was in the bottom of seventh, with the Rockies trailing 7-5. Colorado had runners on second and third with no outs and didn’t score.

“You’ve got to be able to score a run and put a little pressure on them,” Gonzalez said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rockies: 3B Nolan Arenado got a day off to rest. “The time was right,” Weiss said. ... C Nick Hundley (strained oblique) is headed to Arizona for some work in extended spring training.

LEADOFF HOMERS

Charlie Blackmon homered to lead off for the Rockies. It’s the second time in Rockies history both leadoff men homered to start a game. The last time was Aug. 25, 1995, when the Cardinals visited Coors Field. Bernard Gilkey hit one for St. Louis and Trenidad Hubbard had one for the Rockies, according to information provided by the team from STATS.

UP NEXT:

Reds RHP Jon Moscot (0-2, 4.02) faces Rockies RHP Jon Gray (2-2, 5.95) in Game 2 of the four-game series Tuesday night at Coors Field.



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